


I'm Here, Always

by rosesandribbons



Series: Take These Broken Wings, and Learn to Fly [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Avengers Family, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Grieving Peter Parker, I'm Bad At Tagging, May Parker (Spider-Man) Dies, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Parent Tony Stark, Peter Parker Has Nightmares, Peter Parker Loves Tony Stark, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Precious Peter Parker, Protective Tony Stark, Sad Peter Parker, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Loves Peter Parker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-26
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:26:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 38,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25521316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosesandribbons/pseuds/rosesandribbons
Summary: “Oh, sorry Mr. Stark. I’m Claire Dremlow from Child Services. I am sorry to inform you that May Parker has recently passed away from a severe case of internal bleeding. We have checked Ms. Parker's will and found that you are the person she chose to take custody of her nephew Peter. I’d assume that you are still willing to take this responsibility?”OrWhere May dies and Tony has to take on the job of being Peter's one and only parent. Lots of fluff!
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: Take These Broken Wings, and Learn to Fly [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1848925
Comments: 56
Kudos: 324
Collections: Avengers/Marvel





	1. Tony Gets the Call

**Author's Note:**

> This story will be the first of a series. You won’t need to read this story to understand future ones, it will just make an easy timeline. This story will take place after Spider-man Homecoming. We’re just gonna say that the avengers made up bc that's how I want it to be. Oh and Bruce is back on Earth.
> 
> I think this story will have 7 chapters, maybe 6. I want to have an opening chapter which is this one, then one dedicated to each stage of grief, then have a closing chapter. I might end up combining the last stage of grief and the closing chapter, but I’m not sure yet. We’ll see how lazy I’m feeling.
> 
> Also this is my first FanFic so if you have any tips let me know! :)

Tony was sprawled out on the couch watching The Titanic with Natasha, Clint, Steve, and Bruce. Pepper had plenty of SI meetings in Europe so she was gone. Thor wasn’t present because he was in New Mexico with Jane. Bucky was in Wakanda, doing what Tony doesn’t care about, as long as he wasn't in his tower. Vision and Wanda were off galavanting somewhere in Europe. Scott had gone home to his family, and apparently Sam just didn’t feel the need to join the Avengers in their new living space.

As for Peter, it had been 5 months since homecoming. After Peter turned down Tony’s offer to be a part of the Avengers, they had kind of lost contact. And Tony wasn’t gonna deny it, he missed the kid. Alot. But he was proud of the mature choice he had made, and hoped if Peter needed something he would reach out.

So there they were. Five of the first Avengers sitting together having a movie night to try and get back some of their lost friendship. Of course it had been Steve's idea, some sort of team bonding crap that Tony thought was cringe-worthy, but in all honesty, Tony didn’t mind. It was a way to be with the team without really having to be with the team.

They were just getting to the part of the movie where they hit the iceberg when Tony got the call. It was an unknown number, but Tony never even got telemarketers or anything. FRIDAY knew how to filter his calls into only important people or business calls. So Tony figured he should answer it. He excused himself to the kitchen where he answered the call.

“This is Stark.”

There was a pause, almost as if the person on the other end of the line did get the wrong number.

“Who is this?”, Tony began.

“Oh, sorry Mr. Stark. I’m Claire Dremlow from Child Services. I am sorry to inform you that May Parker has recently passed away from a severe case of internal bleeding. We have checked Ms. Parker's will and found that you are the person she chose to take custody of her nephew Peter. I’d assume that you are still willing to take this responsibility?”

Tony didn’t know what to think. It was all so much information to take in at once. He was so caught up on realising that May is dead that it takes a bit longer than normal for his brain to process everything.

He remembered the day May changed her will. She called him a week after homecoming and asked him. Of course he said yes, but he never realised that he would actually ever take on the job. He figured May would be the one there for Peter at his own funeral, not the other way around.

Now it was Claire's turn to speak up. “Mr. Stark?”

That snapped Tony out of his thoughts. He realised that he had sat down and quickly jumped up. “Where is he?”

“We are located at Queens Memorial Hospital.” She said, sounding slightly displeased as Tony wouldn’t answer her question.

Tony quickly ended the call and called his suit to him. 

“FRIDAY, call Happy and tell him to bring a car to Queens Memorial immediately.” He said just as his chest piece attached to him. 

“Of course, Sir.” She replied.

Tony was running out to the balcony with parts of his suit following him when Steve said, “Tony what’s going on?”

He took that moment to pause in the doorway, as the rest of the suit attached. 

Oh shit. He thought.

The team doesn’t know about Peter. What if Peter doesn’t want them to know about spiderman? What if I don’t want them to know about spiderman?

The suit was on him now, and he didn’t even take the time to answer as he blasted into the night sky.

That doesn’t matter right now. Peter does. Peter, Peter, Peter. Get to Peter.

000

Tony burst into the hospital doors with much more force than necessary. He had sent the suit home while making a mental note to pay for the damage to the doors later. He was making a beeline for the front desk when a voice called out, “Mr. Stark! I’m glad to see you made it.”

Tony turned to see- (what was it, Claire?)- looking flustered. She almost looked surprised to see him there, like it wasn’t even him on the phone. “Mr.Stark, I am going to need to discuss what your situation with Peter will be. We want to know if you will be-”

Tony quickly cut her off. “Look, I’ll give you my lawyers card and you can talk to them tomorrow when things are sorted out. Where is Peter?”

“Sir, I understand your worry but I can’t let you leave until we come to an agreement.”

“And what are you going to do, tie me up? Bring me to the kid or else I will tear down every wall in here to find him!” By the end of that sentence he was yelling, and that's when Claire took the time to notice everyone watching them.

“Very well. Right this was Mr. Stark.” She led him across and out of the waiting room, bringing him down a long corridor, and then they took a right and walked to the end of another long hallway. “Right in here. I will be in the waiting room when you are done.”

Tony quickly pulled out his lawyer’s card and flicked it towards her. “Don’t be. Contact my lawyer tomorrow night at 7 once I’ve figured things out. No sooner.” He turned the doorknob and stepped in without another word.

The sight he saw immediately made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. Peter was hunched over a very pale looking May, silent tears dripping down his face. He didn’t even seem to notice Tony’s entrance. Tony turned and shut the door behind him and noticed that Claire had decided to leave. Good choice.

The movement seemed to grab Peters attention as he turned back and saw Peter staring back at him with wide, doe eyes. God, how Tony wished he could take the pain from them. Tony took another step into the room, giving Peter a half smile. Peter quickly ducked his head as more tears started streaming down his face. “Oh, kid,” Tony sighed as he closed the distance between them, pulling Peter into a tight hug. “I’m so sorry.”

That's when Peter let out his first sob. “Mr. S-Stark.” He stuttered out as he continued his sobs. “P-Please don’t m-make me go. Please I d-don’t wanna go into t-the system. P-Please.” He managed to say, cries not slowing down.

Tony quickly rushed to hush him. “Shhh Pete, I won’t make you go anywhere. You can stay with me. You’re okay.” 

“She’s g-gone. She’s really gone.” He paused to stutter in a gasp of air. “I d-don’t want her gone.”

This made Tony’s heart snap in half. “I know Pete. I’m sorry kiddo. I’m so sorry.” He whispered into the younger one's curls.

Peter’s knees then buckled and Tony slowly lowered them to the floor. He pulled Peter onto his lap with his head right where the arc reactor used to be. He slowly rocked them back and forth, whispering coos to the kid as he waited for him to calm down.

They sat there for about 15 minutes while Peters sobs turned to gasps of air, and then to small sniffles as the tears stopped. Tony quietly heard the kid say, “Can we…”, But his voice trailed off

“Do you want to leave kiddo?” Tony whispered, not wanting to upset the kid any more than already done.

Peter slowly looked up to the bed that May’s body lay on. He nodded as he shifted off of Tony’s lap and onto his feet. “Are you sure? There’s no rush buddy.” The older man said, sensing hesitation from the kid.

Peter was quick to nod. “Please. I don’t want to be here anymore.”

Tony joined Peter on his feet and put his arm around the kids shoulders. “Alright then. If you’re sure.”

Peter gave a slight nod of his head before glancing over to May. “Goodbye, May.” He said.

Tony looked back and sadly repeated, “Goodbye, May.”

Peter and him then walked out the door without another word. Tony led him down the long hallways with his arm around the kids shoulder the whole time. Before they entered the waiting room, Tony grabbed a pair of glasses and handed them to Peter. The kid took them without a second thought, and without Tony being able to read anything off of his extremely blank face. Tony figured it might seem suspicious if he was caught taking a teary eyed kid out of a hospital at 11:00 at night, so he made as well try to keep the kids identity safe.

Once Peter had them on, they continued through the doors and into the waiting room. They passed everyone without so much as a glance, even though Tony could feel multiple pairs of eyes burning holes through them.

Tony kept Peter close to his side as they left the hospital, walking to the black audi pulled up by the curb. Tony opened the door for Peter, almost having to lift the kid inside as he was so zoned out after his breakdown. 

Once Peter felt a seat under him he snapped back to reality, looking up to see Happy looking at him through the mirror with concern. The door next to him was slammed shut, making him jump from fear. He then remembered it was just Tony and fell back into his seat. He waited for the passenger door to open and for Tony to hop in, but was surprised when Tony instead got into the other side of the car right next to him.

“To the tower, Hap.” Tony said as the car started to pull away. The billionaire then reached forward and hit the button for the divider to go up, and Peter watched as the black sheet came smoothly into view. Tony reached his hand over and placed it on Peter’s thigh, soothingly rubbing it back and forth. 

Tony watched as Peter leaned into the touch, shifting his body just the slightest bit closer to his mentor. It was enough for Tony to ask, “Do you wanna lay down kiddo? It’s gonna be a bit of a car ride to the tower.”

Peter just shrugged, not really being able to think about the question much. He then looked over to see Tony shifting in his seat so that his back was leaning up against the door, and he moved his legs so they were in the seat between him and Peter. “C’mere kiddo.” The billionaire said. He reached forward to guide Peter towards him, pulling the kid over so he could stretch his legs out. Then he leaned the kids back up against his front, and let the kid rest the back of his head on his shoulder. 

Peter tucked his face under Tony’s neck when he started to feel tears dampen his eyes. He started sniffling and heard his mentor say, “It’s okay kiddie, just let it out. I’m here.” And felt him wrap his arms around Peters stomach so they were bound together.

Peter let the tears fall, hoping Tony wouldn’t be too upset with him crying on him for the second time today. His breath hitched as he started crying again, listening as his mentor cooed him while entwining their hands together. This just made Peter cry harder, knowing that Tony was here for him after all of this time. He figured Tony was mad at him for turning down his offer on the Avengers, and that he didn’t want to be around someone as ungrateful as him.

He realized he must’ve said that out loud as Tony said, “No, no, no, kiddo. I am so proud of the mature choice you made, and you could never do anything that would make me not want to be around you.”

Peter took a moment to think of what to say, but only came up with, “I’m s-sorry.” He gasped out, not wanting to say anything more to provoke himself into more tears.

“Shhh, you have nothing to be sorry for kiddie. Nothing at all.” 

Peter decided not to respond to that, instead just letting out the tears that were falling so often today.

Once Peter's tears had turned into sniffles, Tony whispered, “How about you try to get some rest kiddo? It’s been a pretty rough day.”

Peter's hands suddenly gripped Tony’s like he was his lifeline, the only thing keeping him from falling. 

“Hey, hey, hey, it’s okay, I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be here when you wake up.” This was enough for Peter’s shoulders to release the tension he didn’t realise they suddenly had. He just burrowed his face further into Tony’s neck and let out a sigh of contentment. He then noticed just how tired he was and let consciousness slip away.

Tony just lay there with the kid, his kid, fast asleep in his arms, as he watched the scenery pass by. He himself was starting to get drowsy enough that he didn’t notice when the car pulled into the tower's parking garage.

When Happy opened the door by the pairs feet though, that's when Tony realised where they were. He saw Happy watching them fondly when he whispered, “Hey boss, what’s going on? I’m guessing it’s not the best news.”

Tony gave Happy a look saying ‘tell me about it’ when he whispered back with a soft sigh, “May died from internal bleeding.”

You could visibly see the sadness wash over Happy’s face when he said, “Oh my god, that’s horrible. What are you going to do?” 

“What else would I do? I’m not letting him go into the system Hap. I-” He took a moment to think about this, but just decided to go for the truth. “I’m gonna adopt him.”

Tony watched Happy’s face, waiting for some sort of disapproval to show, but all he found was fondness. “Well I’m glad someone will be there for him.” Happy said with a sad smile.

“Me too.” Tony replied, showing off a real smile, one of those you don’t see often from Tony Stark.

They both just waited there for a moment, watching Peter sleep peacefully when Happy broke the silence. “Are you gonna wake him up or do you want someone to carry him?”

“I should be able to carry him up. Wanna come over here and open the door for me so I can get out?”

“Sure thing boss.”

Tony leaned forward a bit so he wouldn’t fall out when Happy opened the door. He carefully untangled their limbs and hands, and slowly slipped out the door once Happy opened it. With Peter leaning against the seat, Tony took a moment to stretch out his body before leaning down towards the car and lifting Peter out. He wrapped the boy's legs around his waist and put one arm under his waist before supporting his back and head with the other arm and slipped Peter out.

Peter gave a half groan, half whine before Tony hushed him. “Shhh, go to sleep Pete.” He whispered. “You’re okay.”

Peter rested his head on Tony’s shoulder but didn’t show any other sign of fully waking up.

“You got him, boss?” Happy asked, making sure Tony’s trip upstairs wouldn’t be too rough.

“I got him Hap. Thanks for coming so quickly. You can head home.” Tony said with a reassuring smile.

“Don’t worry about it. Glad I could help.” He said, giving a smile in return.

“Night Happy.”

“Goodnight.”

With that Happy got back in the car and drove off, and Tony got in the elevator to head up to the penthouse.

000

With all of the chaos the night suddenly sprang at him, Tony completely forgot about the 4 Avengers waiting upstairs in the penthouse.

He stepped out of the elevator, planning to head to his room when he heard Bruce.

“Tony, thank god! What the hell happened?” Tony looked up to see four confused faces looking at him. Or rather, what was on him.

He was lucky enough to look down and see that the yelling didn’t seem to disturb the sleeping teenager. “Shhh, have some respect will you?” He said in a harsh whisper.

“And who might this be?” Natasha said in a happy, but quiet tone, making Tony look up once more.

Tony weighed out his options. Either have to leave Peter when he is awake to go and tell the curious Avengers why Tony brought home a teenager they had never seen in their lives, or do it now when it looks like the kid won’t be waking up and get it over with. He decided to go for the latter.

“If you must know, this is Peter. He is my intern that is ridiculously smart and I like to have him around because he can actually carry a conversation with me. One out of two people.” He figured if he has the chance, he might as well brag about the kid a little. “Long story short, me and him are close, his aunt changed her will for me to take custody of Peter if something were to happen to her, and that little fantasy came true. Now if you will excuse me, I have some things to do.”

He made it about a step and a half before Clint stepped in front of him. “Tony, wait. You're just going to bring this kid in without a second thought? You should think this through more. I mean, I get you like the kid but given the fact that we haven’t even seen him in the past 3 months of living here, you can’t be that close to him.”

Tony took a moment to show a look of displeasure before saying, “You know what Barton, the kid and I had a bit of a fall out for 5 months for reasons that aren’t your business. But his aunt just died. His last living family member. The last out of four in the past 10 years. And believe it or not, I love this kid. If you don’t approve of him living in the tower then you can pack up your things and get your ass out of here.”

Tony was expecting an argument to come back, but all he got was smiles. All four of the others were smiling, even Natasha had a small smirk on her face, a big change from her normally unreadable expression. 

Clint raised his hands up in mock surrender and said, “Just testing ya.” While letting the smirk grow wider on his face.

Tony rolled his eyes, and caught Steve’s eyes out of the corner of his. “So,” Steve started.

“I got detention?”, Peter asked sleepily, sounding genuinely confused. 

The whole room let out small giggles, not wanting to wake the boy. They had all teased Steve about his Captain PSA’s for a long time.

Once Tony was sure he wouldn’t laugh, he said, “No, no Pete, your good. Go to sleep.”

Steve started again, “Like I was gonna say before,” He paused to send a smirk the kids way. “I guess we have two dads in the house now.”

Clint and Tony both huffed at this and Tony replied, “Go to your rooms. And stay there for the rest of the night.”

He walked past the four smiling superheroes and went into his room. When he turned in the doorway to shut the door he saw them all looking fondly at him.

As he moved to shut the door Natasha spoke up. “Hey pops, if you need any help with your kid, we’d be happy.” 

Tony gave her a soft smile, showing thanks, and he knew she saw it when she gave a nod back. He shut the door behind him, quite relieved because he knew how terribly that could have gone.

He moved to put Peter on the bed so he could change his clothes when Peter mumbled, “Mis’r S’rk?”

Tony figured to take the moment to see if the kid wanted to change out of his jeans and t-shirt so he could sleep more comfortably also. 

“Yeah Pete. I’m here.” Peter opened his eyes to see Tony looking at him a couple of feet away from the bed.

“M’kay.” Peter replied sleepily.

Tony sat down on the edge of the bed and rubbed Peter’s arm. “Hey kiddo, do you wanna change into some more comfy clothes?”

“Don’t got none.”

“That’s okay, you can borrow some of mine.”

Peter opened his eyes he didn’t realize were shut again, and looked at his mentor for the joke on his face. He couldn’t find one though, all he found was a reassuring smile. “Really?” He asked.

“Of course kiddo. As long as you’re not scared of catching my cooties.” Tony said with the smirk showing in his voice.

Now it was Peter’s turn to show a little smile. “Lets just hope my Spidey DNA can fight them off.”

Tony gave Peter a pat on the arm and got up. “I’ll find you something to wear.”

All he got was another sleepy, “M’kay.”

Once Tony found an older pair of sweatpants that were a bit smaller than his normal size, and a MIT sweatshirt he wears in the workshop, he headed back out to Peter. “Here you go buddy.”

Tony tossed the clothes over to Peter on the bed. Peter looked at the sweatshirt and Tony couldn’t quite read what the boy was thinking. He then looked up to his father figure and said with shiny eyes, “Thankyou, Tony.” For everything.

Tony smiled back at him, a little caught off guard with the first name calling, and said, “No problem kiddo.” My pleasure.

The both looked at each other for a moment after that when Tony broke the silence and said, “And hey, if you really are thankful for this, show it by sticking to Tony.”

“I’ll try my best.” Peter said with a smile.

“Alright kiddo, I’m gonna go change in the closet and you can slip those on out here.” Peter gave a nod of agreement, and without another word Tony turned away.

000

When tony was changed into the same comfy attire that Peter was in, he walked back out of his closet to find Peter sitting on the couch in Tony’s room, looking somewhat unsure of himself.

“Something wrong kiddo?” Tony asked as he climbed into bed.

“N-no I’m fine.” Peter replied, not meeting Tony’s eyes.

“Well what are you doing then? Come hop in bed.” Tony said while starting to lie down in bed.

It took a few moments, but soon enough he heard Peter get up from the couch and shuffle to the bed. He stopped at the edge though, unsure of what to do next.

Tony helped him out by lifting up the comforter and patting the bed. Peter realized just how tired he still was and quickly climbed in.

Tony wrapped an arm around Peter once they were both lying down as a signal for him to scoot closer. Peter just finally looks up at Tony with wide, bambi eyes and Tony watches a tear slip down his cheek. Tony took the moment to scoot closer to Peter himself and take his head in his hands. He wiped away the tear with his thumb and leaned forward to place a kiss on Peter's forehead.

Once Tony realised what he did he quickly pulled away from Peter, looking at his face to find disgust or anger, but saw the kid with his eyes shut, slightly smiling from the contact. Tony couldn’t help but smile himself, just happy to see his kid smiling again. Peter then opened his eyes again to look at Tony’s. Tony smiled a little bit bigger, and said, ”Everything will be alright, Peter. I’m here, always.”

Peter smiled as Tony laid his head back down, and then Peter cuddled close to his side, resting his head on Tony’s chest.

“Goodnight, kiddo.”

Goodnight, Tony.”

Tony pulled Peter just a little bit closer and tucked the blanket further around the boys shoulders as he quietly said, “Lights, FRIDAY.”

And with that, the both of them let consciousness slip away.


	2. Denial

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter reached forward to touch May’s hands, while saying with teary eyes, “May, wake up. Please. I need you to wake up. C’mon. Please, look at me.” Peter proceeded to let out a wet sob, urging Tony to wrap the boy up in his arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I decided the layout of each of my chapters and have chosen to have a total of 6 chapters. Updates most likely won't come as often as this one did. Each chapter is going to have around 4,000 words, and sorry if that seems kind of short. I have other stories I started on that take place after this, and I just can’t wait to post them. I’m trying my best though, and have had a lot of fun writing these two chapters. Enjoy! :)

Peter woke up to find himself in an unfamiliar bed. He tried to figure out the events of last night, but just couldn’t put his finger on it. He looked down to see a worn out MIT logo on the sweatshirt he was wearing.

That’s when the memories came rushing back. Getting the call. Not being patient enough on the subway. Hearing the doctors tell him she was gone. Crying. Tony arrived. More crying. Leaving May. And just a bit more of crying.

His vision had started to blur when he heard chairs shifting in the next room, and then hearing what sounded like Tony’s voice say, “Thankyou”. He realised that he had probably been woken up by whoever was out there, before his focus was on himself trying not to cry again. He really wanted to save himself from any more embarrassment than he allowed a few hours ago. Peter quickly blinked the tears away when he heard Tony walk into the room, and his footsteps leading towards him.

The edge of the bed dipped down by Peter as Tony sat next to him, placing a hand on Peter’s shoulder.

“Morning kiddo,” Tony started in a gentle whisper. “FRIDAY told me that you were awake. How ya feelin’?

Even though he knew he slept a full night, thanks to the sun shining through the windows to tell him, Peter felt exhausted. He gave the billionaire just a slight lift of his shoulders, not even trying to build up the energy to show a full shrug.

Tony got the message anyway.

“Well, I made us some breakfast. Tried my best to make it as tasty as possible. How about we go and try it out, yeah?” He said, trying to convince the kid without making it sound like an order.

Peter made eye contact with Tony for the first time that morning, watching as the empathy washed over Tony's face. He quickly looked away again, already feeling guilty for putting Tony through this.

“It’s fine,” he said. “M’not very hungry, you just go eat.”

Tony hooked his index finger under Peter’s chin and turned his head so they were making eye contact again. “Didn’t you hear me kid? I said I made breakfast for us, not for me to go and sit in an empty room to eat all alone. C’mon bud.”

Tony stood up and pulled the comforter off of Peter’s body, and then turned to slip his hand under Peter’s back to urge him to sit up. Peter complied, knowing how difficult it would be to win an argument against Tony Stark.

He allowed Tony to lead him out to the kitchen and living room of the penthouse, and sit him down in one of the chairs around the kitchen table. Peter had kind of zoned out thinking about what he would be doing right now if none of this was happening. If May wasn’t gone and if Tony was never called last night.

He supposed he’d be making toast for himself and then be sitting down to watch something on TV before heading out for patrol. It was Mid-June, so he wouldn’t have had any homework or school to deal with.

The sound of Tony saying, “You with me, Pete?”, and two empty plates being placed down in front of him snapped him out of his thoughts.

“Yeah, sorry,” He quickly replied, while a small blush crawled up his face. “What’d you say?”

“Don’t be. I just asked if you wanted some juice. We have orange and apple.” Tony said as he turned to grab the heaping stack of pancakes off of the counter. 

He brought the plate over to the table and looked down as Peter’s eyes immediately filled with tears.

He rushed to Peter’s side as he said, “Hey, hey, hey, what’s going on?”

The only response Tony got was a strained sob from Peter, making him pull the boy against his stomach as Peter was sitting down, not letting them fully hug.

Peter burrowed his face into Tony’s stomach, trying to hide the deepening blush on his face. He was finding it rather difficult to keep the tears in once they had built up over their very eventless morning.

“Buddy, it’s okay to cry. No one is judging you.” That was enough for Peter to let out a chain of strangled sobs, gasping for air in between each one. “Hey, Pete, focus on breathing. C’mon, deep breaths.”

Tony started running his hands through Peter’s curls while taking exaggerated breaths, trying to get his protégé to follow along. After a couple minutes, Peter’s sobs turned into slower cries. Tony’s shoulders sagged a little in relief, happy he wouldn’t have to deal with a passed out teen.

Without thinking, Peter started rambling, wanting to earn some of his composure back with an explanation. “M-May made me pancakes after-” He paused to take a deep breath, still hiding his face in Tony’s stomach. “After Uncle Ben died. We had them a lot because she was too tired to make anything else. I didn’t mind though. I would-, I would sneak in and drop blueberries into the batter.” Peter paused when he let a wet laugh slip out. “I like them better with blueberries.” Peter quickly shot his head towards the plate of pancakes, and then up to his mentors eyes. “But these are great Mist- Tony. I bet they taste really-”

Peter was cut off by Tony’s reassuring, “Woah, kid, take a breath. It’s no big deal. You like blueberries in your pancakes and now I know that. Also, I can always make something else for breakfast if you don’t want these.”

“No, that’s okay Tony, really. These will be great.” Tony wanted to argue, but didn’t want to make the kid anymore upset. Instead, he stood up and walked over to their unnecessarily large pantry, and dug through it until he found what he was looking for. He grabbed it and walked back over to the table, setting it down in front of Peter.

Peter looked at it for a moment, before cracking a small smile. It was labeled, ‘Blueberry Syrup’. “Better?” Tony asked. Peter gave a quick nod, and with that, Peter and Tony dug in.

000

30 minutes later, Peter was lying in the corner crevice of Tony’s couch with a blanket wrapped around him. Tony was sitting on the other end of the couch with his feet kicked up on the coffee table as he watched the beginning of A New Hope roll onto the screen.

Although this was probably his favorite Star Wars movie, Peter was having a hard time focusing on the movie. He couldn’t help but play the events of the last day over and over in his head. He couldn’t help but think of what would have happened if something would’ve happened to Tony instead of May. What would it be like, attending his 3rd father figures funeral?

That thought made Peter jump up from his position on the couch, making Tony jump a little too. “Oh, god, Mr. Stark! What about May’s funeral? What am I going to do? I don’t know how to plan a funeral!”

This made Tony internally wince. He had been hoping to finish the movie and create a calmer atmosphere before diving into the deep end. Oh well. He thought. Guess we’ll be heading down there a little bit sooner than expected.

“Relax, kid. I wanted to talk about this later but I guess we can now if you want to.” Peter was quick to nod, knowing that the sooner they got this conversation over with, the better.

“Okay,” Tony continued, “That’s fine. FRIDAY, turn down the movie.” The room immediately quieted, the movie only a dull whisper in the background.

“Why don’t you sit down?” Peter took that moment to realise that he was still standing after his small outburst, and quickly sat back down. “Alright, now I understand that planning a funeral can be a very difficult thing to do, especially at your age. If you want to plan the funeral, I would gladly help you. If you wanted Ted to help you out, by all means. But, I can tell you that when I planned my parents funeral, well, let’s just say it’s not the most enjoyable memories I have. I can always do it for you if you don’t want to be included now that I have some experience in that area. And before you turn down that option, kid, I really wouldn’t mind. I want to help. That’s why I’m here.”

Peter was partially surprised by how forward Tony was being, but in all honesty, he was relieved he wouldn’t have to be under so much pressure. He knew, deep down, that Tony was being true to his word and would be comfortable planning the funeral. So that’s why Peter said, “I don’t want to do it.’’ 

Tony gave Peter an encouraging smile, glad that the kid was being honest about what he wanted for once.

“And also, we both know you know his name is Ned.” The sudden change of attitude made Tony actually let out a laugh. A real, one of a kind, Tony Stark laugh.

Peter couldn’t help but let out a small laugh at this too, loving the moments where he could make his mentor happy. 

“Getting a little sassy now are we?” Tony replied, happy to see his boy smiling.

“Only learned from the best.” Peter cracked back.

Tony leaned over to ruffle Peter’s hair before turning serious again. “And one more thing kiddo. About our whole situation here. What are you thinking about me adopting you? Since I was in May’s will, I am already your legal guardian, but what do you say we make it a bit more official?”

Peter took a moment to process this. He hadn’t thought much about, more caught up thinking about May. But this left Peter starstruck. Tony Stark, the Tony Stark, wanted to adopt him. Peter Parker. Tony Stark wanted to adopt Peter Parker. Wow. Okay. Yeah…wow.

“I-”, Peter paused to think through what he wanted to say, but only came up with, “I think I’d like that. Yeah.” He said with a smile on his face.

A smile broke onto Tony’s face also and he reached over to pull Peter towards him so the kid was resting with his head on his shoulder. “I’d like that too, kid.”

Not another word was said as the volume of the movie was turned back up, and Peter and Tony sat together, watching their movie.

Peter started to feel his eyelids droop, and Tony must’ve noticed because he quietly whispered to FRIDAY to dim the lights.

Oh, how multiple breakdowns in half a day could tire you out. 

Before Peter fell asleep, he remembered one thing he wanted to ask the man next to him. “Hey, Tony?”

Tony just hummed in response, waiting for the kid to continue. “I thought I heard voices when I woke up earlier. Was someone here?”

Tony took a moment to reply, thinking through his words carefully. “I had a few co-workers here that wanted to talk. Nothing exciting.” Not exactly lying.

“Oh, okay.” Peter replied, kind of confused because he knew that Tony didn’t have co-workers, he liked his independence. The only person to even consider as Tony’s co-worker would be Pepper, but he saw on the news a few days ago that she was in Europe because of SI meetings. And even if she was back and for some reason didn’t stay, Peter didn’t think that Tony would label her as his co-worker. 

Peter didn’t attempt to prod the question further as the tiredness of the morning overwhelmed him and he fell asleep. 

000

“I don’t know what to do Pep, I’ve never had to be more than a friend to Peter, and now I’m his only parent. I’ve never dealt with anything like this before.” Tony said into his phone. He left Peter to sleep on the couch while he figured out May’s funeral when Pepper had called him.

He had maybe, kind of, just slightly forgot to tell Pepper that he had adopted a kid. Well the papers weren’t through yet, it had only been about 50 minutes since Peter fell asleep, and he had called his lawyer immediately after. It was in the process.

He was surprised, but more so relieved that Pepper had a good reaction about it. She was a bit upset that Tony hadn’t let her know sooner, but understood. And she sounded somewhat happy, somewhat proud that Tony had so quickly taken on the responsibility.

“Just talk to him Tony. It’s gonna be hard, especially since this is the 4th parental figure he has lost. Ask what he wants, if he needs you there or just wants to be left alone right now.” She replied. “Tony, you have to remember that I don’t have a kid, and I don’t know anymore about this than you do. Maybe try to find some books about grief to give you some tips.”

“Thanks, Pep. I know you don’t know anything about what’s going on, but you’re helping anyways. I’ll see if I can order some books. Right now, it’s gonna be kinda hard to talk to him when he’s in such deep emotional states.”

“I’m happy I could help. You’re doing the right thing Tony, as weird as that sounds. Love you.”

“I love you too, Pep. Bye.”

“Goodbye.”

And with that, Tony went online and ordered 3 books to help him through something he never thought he’d have to do.

000

The next day, Peter found himself walking into the same church that Ben’s funeral took place at. He was dressed in a black tuxedo and had Tony’s arm wrapped around his shoulder. 

Last night, when Tony walked into his room to tell him that the funeral would be tomorrow, the least you could say he was was surprised. He knew that funerals normally took from at least a few days, to a few weeks to be prepared for.

Yet here they were, walking to the ceremony two days after May’s death. Peter supposed it wouldn’t be too hard to round up guests, giving the fact that only the Leed’s family and a few of May’s coworkers would be attending.

It was also likely one of the perks of being Tony Stark, but Peter didn’t mention that.

The church was empty at the moment because Peter and Tony had decided to come a bit earlier to get prepared. They set up pictures of May in the front hall as the time clicked closer for guests to arrive.

They decided they were happy with the outcome around 15 minutes before the guests were arriving, so they tucked the boxes they brought the stuff in away to another room and then headed to the chapel.

Peter stopped almost immediately after they opened the doors. There was May, lying down at the other end of the chapel, with her arms resting on her stomach. 

“You alright Bud?” Tony asked, even though he knew the true answer to that.

Peter gulped before stepping forward and giving a slight nod of his head. Tony followed him to the coffin, stopping directly in front of it and taking a moment of silence for the boy’s aunt.

What Peter did next broke Tony’s heart.

Peter reached forward to touch May’s hands, while saying with teary eyes, “May, wake up. Please. I need you to wake up. C’mon. Please, look at me.” Peter proceeded to let out a wet sob, urging Tony to wrap the boy up in his arms.

Tony knew he should say something, but didn’t want to upset the boy. Before he could even get the chance to say anything, Peter blurted out, “C’mon Tony, tell her to wake up!”

Tony made the choice to pull Peter away from his aunt, pulling the boy into his arms. He rubbed his hand up and down the kids back, and said, “Oh, Pete, she’s not waking up buddy.”

This made Peter sob harder, not wanting to accept the truth. “Here Kid, why don’t we go to the bathroom?” Peter didn’t do anything to respond, so Tony took the liberty of leading him to the bathroom with Peter leaned against his shoulder.

000

10 minutes later, after Peter had calmed down enough to leave the bathroom, The Leeds family was standing in front of Peter and Tony with Ned wrapping his best friend into a hug. 

“I’m so sorry, man.” Ned said.

All Peter could muster out was a simple, “Thanks.”

Everything after that kind of passed in a blur. Peter vaguely remembered a few other people he had met only once in his life telling him sorry. He remembered sitting down in one of the church pews, and he remembered getting up to leave. 

It was just too much. Peter didn’t like it.

When people came forward and shut the lid of the coffin, Peter’s stomach twisted into a knot. He was never going to see May’s face again. She was gone. Gone for good.

Tony noticed Peter’s breath suddenly quicken, so he reached over and placed a hand on the boy’s shoulder. 

It helped. It grounded Peter before he got too lost in his fear.

All too soon, Peter was on his feet again, and him and Tony were following several men carrying May’s coffin to a hearses.

He saw Ned in front of him again, and he saw his lips move, but didn’t even hear what he said. Peter figured that he had responded because Ned gave him a pitiful smile and then walked away.

Tony led him to their car again, and helped Peter into the passengers before quickly walking around and hopping into the drivers side. 

Peter felt detached, like he was watching his life through a metal screen. Tony lifted his hand to rest on Peter’s shoulder again. At least Peter thought he did. He didn’t feel anything though. 

Wait, why would I feel anything? Was Tony even here? Wait, where is here? What was he thinking about?

He heard Tony say, “You ready, bud?” Peter nodded, not sure what he was ready for, but stayed quiet until he noticed the car stopped. When did we start moving?

He looked up to see they were parked outside the gates of a graveyard. An all too familiar graveyard. The same graveyard that Peter’s parents and Uncle Ben were buried in.

The door suddenly opened next to Peter, and he looked over to see Tony standing there, reaching a hand down to help him out.

Peter stepped out of the car and spotted an open grave with May’s hearses next to it. It felt like the blink of an eye, but suddenly Peter was standing by the grave with Tony’s arm wrapped around his shoulder.

The two heroes watched as the casket was lowered into the grave, and dirt was pushed on top of it.

Peter didn’t know how long they stood there for, but the next time he opened his eyes everyone was gone besides him and Tony. How did that happen?

Peter took his time to gather his thoughts about when everyone left but couldn’t remember a thing. He only remembered May’s face disappearing and the coffin being covered.

“Wait.” Peter suddenly said. “Wait, wait, wait. Tony, May can’t breathe in there. Tony, she needs to breath!”

Peter dropped to his knees and started scratching at the newly placed dirt, trying to find a way to get May out.

“C’mon Tony, help me! She needs air!”

Tony slowly crouched down next to Peter and moved his hand so they were on top of Peter’s, stopping the kid so he couldn’t move them. “Buddy.” 

Peter stayed staring at their hands, waiting for Tony to move his out of the way. “Pete, hey, look at me.” That’s what Peter thought his mentor said to him, but he wasn’t sure. He was too focused on helping May.

Peter felt himself being lifted off of the ground and felt his feet start moving back towards the car. He didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t figure out how to turn around, to tell Tony that May needed him, so he did nothing. He walked to the car as Tony helped him into the backseat.

Great, the kid thought. I’m such a baby I’m not even allowed to sit by him anymore. Just great.

Peter watched Tony sit next to him and wrap him into a hug, and the older man started running his hands through Peter’s hair. “I’m sorry buddy. I’m so sorry. But she’s gone. You can’t deny it.”

Peter didn’t know what he did, but hearing his mentor say, “Can you hear me, Peter?”, made him look up in confusion.

Tony was looking at the kids hands. Peter also looked down to see that there were several cuts in his hands, likely from scratching at the dirt moments earlier.

“Bud, did you even notice these cuts before? Did you feel them?” Peter took the moment to think, wondering if he did and just wasn’t paying enough attention. Before the boy could say anything, Tony said, “Oh, God, Pete, you’re dissociating aren’t you? Let’s bring you back to me.”

Tony bent forward and took the kids shoes off, and then sat back up and carefully took his protégé’s hands in his, minding the cuts on them. “Alright Buddy,” He said. “Can you feel the floor under your feet? Try pushing your feet down on the floor.” 

Peter did as his mentor said, and liked the feeling of the floor, knowing it was there. He wiggled his toes around a bit. “Okay, that’s good Kid. Now, can you feel my hands in yours? How about you give my hands a squeeze, yeah?” 

Peter squeezed the billionaires hands, feeling a twinge of pain when he did so. His brow furrowed, confused why that action hurt him. “Alright, Kiddo, almost done. Now how about the seat under you. Try to focus on the feeling of the seat.” 

Peter came to with a gasp. He suddenly felt everything. The pain in his hands, the dull ache in his chest, and the suffocating feeling of the tie around his neck. He instantly started tugging on it, trying to figure out how to breathe, but his shaking hands were in the way of doing it properly.

“Okay, okay, Buddy. Let me help.” Tony reached forward and undid the tie for Peter as the kid started breaking down into sobs. He pulled the tie off of Peter’s neck, and then instantly turned into comfort-mode.

He pulled the boy towards him, cradling his head against his chest. Peter’s sobs didn’t slow down, so Tony leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss to his forehead. Peter snuggled into Tony’s chest, and wrapped his arms around the man's back. They stayed like that for a while, until Peter was just sniffling.

“Should we head home, Kiddo?”

Peter gave a stiff nod, and said, “Yes. I want to go home.”

000

When Tony pulled up to the tower, Peter was fast asleep in the passenger's seat. He took a moment to look at the boy, a smile crawling onto his face at the peaceful look on the younger ones face.

Tony quietly slipped out of the car and moved to the passenger’s side, unbuckling Peter’s seatbelt and lifting him into his arms like he did previous nights before. 

He carried the boy into the elevator and waited silently for them to reach the penthouse. When the elevator stopped, Tony walked to the guest room that had been set up today for Peter. Of course it was the room right next to Tony’s. 

Before laying Peter down, he took off the Kid’s jacket, undid his belt, and pulled the shirt out of his pants. At least make him comfortable.

Once Peter was laying down on the bed, Tony pulled the comforter up to the boys shoulders. He looked at him with admiration, before leaning down to plant a kiss on the boys temple.

“Goodnight, Pete.” Tony said. He brushed some of the curls off of Peter’s forehead, and then walked out the door.

000

The next day, Peter was sitting on the couch watching Jurassic World while Tony had slipped away to shower. Peter felt kind of guilty because he had been taking up so much of the man’s time. The least he could do was let him shower.

He thought about going out for patrol while Tony was away but figured it wasn’t the best time for him. So there he was, watching Chris Pratt run across his screen when the elevator dinged open, and a random lady walked in with a box in her hands.

She hadn’t seemed to notice Peter, so he cleared his throat and said, “Who are you?”.

The lady whipped around to see Peter sitting on the couch, with a suspicious look on his face. “Oh, I’m sorry Hon, I didn’t notice you. I’m one of the secretaries from the lobby. My name’s Darcy. I have a package for Mr. Stark that I was told should go to his office, but I’m not sure where that is. Would you like to take this there for me sweetheart?”

“Oh, um, sure. I guess I can.” I’m not letting you wander around here alone. Darcy set the package down on the counter and walked out with a, “Thankyou, Hon.” And was gone before he knew it.

Peter stepped forward to look at the box. Odd. He thought. Why would Tony just let someone bring an unopened package into his house. 

Peter figured he should probably make sure that there was nothing dangerous in the box, so he went to the kitchen and grabbed a knife to open the box. He cut it open and found a receipt from Barnes and Nobles. He reached forward and unwrapped the books from the brown paper.

There were 3 books inside. One reading, Healing Your Grieving Heart. Another read, The Grieving Teen, and the last said, Grief Recovery for Teens.

Peter didn’t know why, but this pissed. Him. Off. “What the fuck?!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sure how I feel about this chapter. Some parts a like and other parts I don't. I'm not sure how I am going to start the next chapter with this ending, but I'll figure it out.


	3. Anger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Kid? Is something wrong?” Peter didn’t do anything to respond, just quickened his pace. Tony stepped forward, and grabbed Peter's arm. “Pete, what’s going on?”
> 
> Peter ripped his arm away from Tony and yelled, “Leave me alone!”
> 
> Tony stepped back in surprise, never seeing this side of his kid before. Peter turned and ran the rest of the way to his room while he had the chance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m hoping you are all still enjoying this! I feel like I lose my touch after the first chapter, but I’m getting lots of support from you guys and you’re motivating me to keep going! Also, I’m gonna stop guessing when the next chapter will be released because I’m always wrong. Lately I’ve been reading sad stories and they put me in the mood to write. Updates will be decently often. Anyways, enjoy!

“What the fuck?!” Why was Tony buying books for him? If he wanted them he would have asked for them! He shouldn’t be going around and making decisions for him!

Peter grabbed the box and stormed off to Tony’s office. He ever so gently threw the box onto his desk and left without a word. On his way to his room, he passed Tony, who had wet hair and was in a pair of sweats.

“Kid? Is something wrong?” Peter didn’t do anything to respond, just quickened his pace. Tony stepped forward, and grabbed Peter's arm. “Pete, what’s going on?”

Peter ripped his arm away from Tony and yelled, “Leave me alone!”

Tony stepped back in surprise, never seeing this side of his kid before. Peter turned and ran the rest of the way to his room while he had the chance.

“Boss, if I may, I believe I know what Mr. Parker is upset about.” Tony waited for FRIDAY to continue, but didn’t hear anything.

He threw his hands up in the air. “Well?!”

“Around 3 minutes ago, Darcy Patrick delivered a package from Barnes and Nobles. She asked Peter to deliver the box to your office. Mr. Parker opened the package to make sure it wasn’t anything dangerous, and I believe he misunderstood why you bought them.”

Tony looked to the ceiling in confusion. “Misunderstood? What do you mean misunderstood?”

“I believe from Mr. Parker's reaction, he thought you were buying the books to give to him.”

Oh.

Oh.

“Yeah, okay, that’s not good. But why would he get so mad? He doesn’t even get mad at criminals when he’s on patrol!”

“Boss, I believe Young Parker has entered stage 2 of grief. Little things, like this, might make him more angry than normal.”

Oh god. How could I be so blind? Of course this is grief. 

“Do you think I should talk to him?” He asked.

“I believe that would be best.” The A.I. responded.

Tony nodded and walked towards Peter’s room. He hesitated before knocking, but knew it was the right thing to do. He tapped the door three times and waited for a response. He got none, so he grabbed the door knob and opened the door a bit, peeking his head in.

“Pete? Can we talk, kid?” When Tony was ignored yet again, he opened the door the rest of the way. “Peter?”

Tony flicked on the light switch, and all he saw was an empty room. “FRIDAY? Where is he?” 

“Mr. Parker left for patrol 2 minutes ago.” She responded.

“What?! Why didn’t you tell me? He shouldn’t be on patrol right now, he’s not himself!” You could hear the worry growing in his voice.

“I’m sorry boss, I was unaware he was not allowed to leave.” 

“Shit.” Tony ran to the lab to watch the surveillance footage from Peter’s suit.

You could say he wasn’t too happy with what he saw.

000

Tony watched as Peter ran past about 7 guys shooting at him, and saw him leap onto what he assumed to be the leader of the gang.

Tony ran to one of his suits and quickly flew to Peter’s coordinates. He was watching Peter’s fight on his screen and watched as one of the bullets pierced Peter’s shoulder, cutting his suit open.

You could tell Peter was losing the fight. His movements were becoming more and more uncoordinated and he was getting a few good hits from his attackers. 

By the time Tony arrived, Peter had only managed to take down 4 of the 8 men attacking him. They were hidden in an alley behind a grocery store, so Tony assumed they had been trying to escape from The Amazing Spider-Man.

Tony quickly blasted two of the men that were fighting Peter to the ground and while Peter was distracted with Tony’s sudden arrival, one of the last two men hit Peter in the head with their gun, knocking the boy to the ground. Tony shot the last two of them before rushing to Peter’s side.

He rolled Peter over and pulled off his mentee’s mask, looking down on his face. His eyes were shut and blood was starting to pool down the side of his head.

“Pete, can you open your eyes for me, Buddy?” No response. “Shit. FRIDAY, get the police our coordinates and send them here immediately.”

“They are already on their way, Boss.” Tony didn’t even take the time to reply as he lifted Peter up by his armpits and flew into the air.

“FRIDAY, send Bruce to the medbay, tell him it’s urgent.” He huffed to the A.I.

“The message is sent.”

This was all too familiar, Peter fighting someone he couldn’t take on his own and being knocked out in doing so. It was all too familiar flying with the boy hanging in front of him to safety. Homecoming was something he never wanted to think about again, and here he was reliving it.

000

Tony arrived at the tower two minutes later with Peter still passed out in his arms. The suit came off Tony in a rush, and he stumbled a little with the sudden weight of Peter on him. He quickly regained his balance, and then picked Peter up bridal style and sprinted to the medbay.

He burst through the doors to see Bruce already standing next to a gurney, worry evident on his face. 

“Tony, what’s going on?” Bruce asked.

“The kid got a good hit to the head on patrol, it knocked him out right away.”

“Patrol?” Bruce questioned, and then took a moment to look Peter over, seeing the Spider-Man suit and blood on his head.

Tony’s eyes widened. He didn’t mean to let that slip! But then again, here was Peter, giving off every sign that this was his secret identity.

“Shit, yeah. Um, you need to promise to keep your mouth shut, but he’s Spider-Man. Obviously. Got enhanced healing and an enhanced metabolism, so do what you have to do.”

Bruce looked like he was about to argue, but then glanced down at Peter and anything he was about to say died on his lips. “Okay, Tony, does he have any other injuries?” Tony looked down at the teens shoulder where the small cut was from the bullet. “Right, okay, bring him in that room on the right. I need to grab a few things, but it would be easier if you didn’t lay him down since the worst part is on the back of his head. So, if you can figure that out, I’ll be in in a minute.”

Bruce quickly turned and ran the other direction, so Tony walked into the room Bruce told him to. He sat down on the bed with the kid still in his lap, and pulled him up so he wasn’t as slouched. He then leaned Peter’s head against the crook of his neck so Bruce would have easy access to the boy's injury.

Bruce walked in moments later with a few different things to help Peter. He looked at the pair on the bed with a slight smile before he sat down next to the bed and he pulled on a pair of gloves to take a look at Peter’s head. 

“The cut actually isn’t that bad, but you said he has enhanced healing so I’m sure it has already been healed a bit. He probably had a minor concussion, but if the cut is already healing I doubt that it is still there. I was going to wrap up his head, but now it looks like I won’t even have a point in doing so. I’ll just put a bit of dressing on it, and he should be able to sleep the injury off.” 

Tony let out a sigh of relief, happy he wouldn’t be spending the night in the hospital. “Thank God.” He sighed.

“And I know I shouldn’t be surprised, but really Tony? Isn’t he like 15?” Bruce asked in a quiet tone.

“Hey, in my defense, I didn’t make him Spider-Man. He was bit by a radioactive spider which gave him his powers. He manufactured his webs and all I did was help keep him safe.”

“Didn’t you bring him to Germany?” The doctor asked with a smirk on his face.

Tony rolled his eyes and took a moment to say, “The kid needed something exciting to do. There was no way to stop him from being Spider-Man, so why not spice it up a bit?”

Now it was Bruce's turn to roll his eyes. Tony quickly went to defend himself. “Hey, I will always put the kid’s safety before mine, and just think, if I never did any of that stuff, where would he be right now?”

Bruce and Tony looked at each other for a moment before the doctor broke a smile. He reached forward and put a hand on Tony’s shoulder. “You’re a good guy Tony. Honestly, I don’t even care too much about you taking him in. I mean, yeah he’s a little young, but you really like the kid. I mean, he’s got to be a good kid if Tony Stark likes him, right?”

Bruce smirked at Tony, and Tony smiled back.

“Yeah, he is a good kid.”

Bruce's smile softened when he looked at the kid, and then back at Tony. “You should probably bring him to bed. He’ll need his sleep after this.”

Tony nodded and fixed his grip on Peter so he could stand up. “Thank you, Bruce.” Bruce gave Tony a soft nod of his head, and watched as Tony walked out of the room with his new found kid in his arms.

The doctor smiled and stood up to head back to his lab.

000

Tony arrived at Peter's room and gently laid the boy down on the bed. He was about to cover the kid up when he realised that his spandex outfit probably wouldn’t be the most comfortable thing to sleep in.

He walked over to the kid’s closet to find something to slip the kid into.

He was grabbing a pair of sweatpants when he heard shuffling from the kid’s bed and a confused, sleepy groan.

Tony walked out of the closet to see Peter sitting up in his bed with a hand on the back of his head.

“Hey, Pete.” Peter looked up at him in surprise. “Sorry, I didn’t want to wake you up. You got a cut on your head that’s healing pretty well and should be gone with rest.”

You could see the gears clicking into place in Peter’s head as he remembered the events of the last hour. Anger suddenly washed over his face. He looked at Tony dead in the eye and said, “Get out.”

Oh, right. Tony thought. He’s mad at me about those books. Yeah kinda forgot about that. 

“Look, kid, can I talk to you about tha-” Tony was cut off by Peter’s sudden shouting.

He jumped off the bed and lightly pushed Tony towards the door. “I said get out! I don’t need your help! Just leave me alone!”

Tony stared at Peter in disbelief before turning on his heels and walking out the door. The door behind him slammed shut, making him jump in surprise. He stopped for a moment to think. 

Should I try talking to him? He looked at his watch to see it was only 4 in the afternoon. Nah. Maybe give him a few hours and talk to him at dinner. Yeah. Just give him some time to calm down. Besides, this is Peter. He can’t stay mad for too long. That’s just not him.

With his mind made up, Tony walked to the elevator to go tinker in the lab for a bit. He knew that it would be hard to focus, that his mind would keep wandering off to thinking about how their conversation would go at dinner, but hey, it’s a distraction.

He arrived in the lab and walked over to a simple car engine he was working on amplifying. Something easy that doesn’t need much focus. He sat down on a stool in front of the car before saying, “FRIDAY, let me know when it’s 7:00. And from now on tell me if Peter leaves for patrol without telling me. Also, let me know if the kid needs anything.”

“Will do, Sir.” She responded instantly.

“Play my music.” ACDC started blasting in the background, and with that Tony got to work.

000

Three hours into Tony’s mental war, FRIDAY alerted him that it was 7. He straightened up from his hunched position over his car, and winced as his back popped in doing so.

He stood up from his seat and stretched his legs before he headed to the door. “Save everything and shut it down, Fri.” He could see the lights behind him flicker off as he stepped into the elevator.

When the elevator opened up to the kitchen, Tony stepped out and walked to the pantry to look for something to cook. He decided on some easy mac and cheese, so he grabbed a few boxes and walked to the stove.

After about 10 minutes, Tony had finished cooking the noodles and was pouring them into a strainer. “FRIDAY, tell Peter dinner is ready.” 

“Will do, boss.”

Tony waited for Peter to come out of his room as he finished mixing in the ingredients. Two minutes later, when he hadn’t gotten a response and was waiting to eat, he talked to FRIDAY again.

“FRIDAY, did Peter get the message?”

“He did, boss.” Tony thought he heard offense in her voice, but didn’t bring it up.

“Can you ask him if he’s coming?”

He waited a few moments before his A.I. responded with, “Mr. Parker said he is coming.”

After Tony waited for 5 more minutes, he was done.

He stood up from his spot at the table and poured the rest of the pasta into a dish and set it in the microwave to keep it warm. He walked back into the elevator and it immediately took him down to the lab. He knew he shouldn’t be mad, but the kid wouldn’t even give him a chance and he was sick of it.

When the doors opened back up to his lab, he walked over to his car and sighed before he sat down.

“Boss, Peter is in the kitchen, are you going to go back up?”

Tony decided better of it, wanting to make sure Peter had enough time to himself. ”No, just bring up the live feed from the kitchen, please. I want to make sure he eats.”

The hologram in front of him flashed to the feed of the kitchen with Peter standing by the counter. He watched as Peter glanced around and his eyes landed on Tony’s plate of food. The kid stepped forward to grab the plate when he noticed that the fork resting in it was dirty, and the bowl was halfway gone.

Tony’s stomach flipped when Peter’s eyes filled with tears and his bottom lip quivered. The genius realized that he was frozen on the spot, watching the boy when he heard a voice come through the speakers from the footage.

“Mr. Parker, I believe Boss put your dinner in the microwave because it was getting cold.”

Tony’s stomach twisted in guilt. He almost made Peter cry because he hid his food! Why didn’t he think to tell him where he put it? The boy thought that he would take his food just because they were having a small argument!

Once Peter had blinked away his tears, he walked over to the microwave and opened it. Sure enough, there was his bowl of food. The kid grabbed it out of the microwave and turned around.

Tony watched as he stared at Tony’s spot again, but then walked over to one of the barstools on the counter and sat down.

“Shut it down, Fri. He’s eating.” The hologram quickly disappeared and Tony stared at the spot it was just at.

Would now be a good time to talk?... No. He is obviously still upset since he didn’t come eat with me. Maybe tomorrow we will find time.

In all honesty, this was killing Tony. The boy could obviously be using some emotional support, and Tony couldn’t even decide if he should be the one to give it to him. Everything had been going so wrong since Tony picked Peter up from the hospital. It had only been 3 nights since then, and it seemed that nothing wanted to go their way.

But whatever Peter needed, Tony would give it to him. And if all Peter needed was time, Tony would surely let him have it.

000

Peter stared at the wall while finishing his food. His mind was oddly blank at the moment, and he didn’t really feel like doing anything. He ate the rest of his food and put his dishes in the sink before walking back to his room.

He flopped onto his bed and stared at the ceiling for around 10 minutes, tracing his eyes along the cracks on the ceiling. His phone buzzed, making him jump, when he looked over to see Ned was calling him.

A pang of guilt ran through Peter, he realized he had been completely ignoring him the past few days. He just hoped Ned would understand under their circumstances.

Peter reached over to his nightstand and picked up his phone, answering the call.

“Hey Ned.” He said wearily.

“Hey, Man. How’s it going?” You could hear the pity tracing Ned’s voice.

Peter took a moment to think, and decided it would be nice to talk to someone about everything. Ever since May died, he had only been around Tony and they hadn’t gotten too far into talking about feelings.

Ned must’ve noticed his hesitation when he said, “Hey, if you don’t want to talk right now, I understand.”

Peter was quick to reassure him. “No, I could really use someone to talk to right now. Today has been bad.”

“I’m sorry dude, what’s going on?” Peter couldn’t help a small smile slip at his friend's kindness.

“Well, earlier today Tony got a package, and I opened it to make sure it was nothing dangerous because he never orders packages. It was a bunch of books for me about grief that I didn’t even ask for! I feel like I shouldn’t be mad, but he shouldn’t just go around buying stuff to try to help me without even asking me!”

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the line before Ned spoke up. “So what happened? That can’t be the end of the story.”

“No, it’s not. I got mad so I left for patrol, and I was doing just fine stopping a robbery when Tony showed up in the suit. He distracted me so I got hit in the head with a gun, and then I woke up in my room and he was in there, and I just got so mad because everything would’ve gone fine if he hadn’t showed up! I already had 4 of them down in like a minute, and the other half would have been easy to take down! So Tony starts telling me what I did wrong, and so I yelled at him to get out and we haven’t spoken since.”

“Woah, dude, take a breath,” His friend reminded him. “I get why you might be upset about the books, but maybe just talk to him about it? I’m sure he’s just trying to help. And did he really start yelling at you about what you did wrong after you got knocked out? I mean, that seems kinda low.”

Peter thought back about what happened, and remembered how Tony said, ‘Sorry, I didn’t want to wake you up. You got a cut on your head that’s healing pretty well and should be gone with rest.’

Peter’s eyes widened when he realized he snapped at Tony for no reason. He had been apologizing to the boy for taking care of him, and Peter just yelled at him. 

“Oh God, he must hate me! I was so fired up about what happened I didn’t even realize he was trying to help! I yelled at him for no reason!” Peter felt like he could cry. He probably just ruined his relationship with the only guardian he had left!

“Peter, I’m sure he’ll understand. Just tell him what happened. But I have to say, I’m glad he showed up. I mean, you were fighting 8 guys with guns? That’s so dangerous!”

All of the anger that left Peter in the past hour came back in a rush. “Oh, so you’re taking his side now?”

“C’mon man, you know that’s not what I meant.”

Peter was having none of it. “Dude, you’re supposed to be my best friend. You’re supposed to be making me feel better right now!”

Ned sighed in frustration. “Well, as your best friend, I think I have a right to worry about your safety!”

“You know what, I have to go.” He laced as much venom in his voice as possible and said, “Thanks for the help.”

He ended the call and threw his phone to the other end of the bed. Peter stood up and walked over to his window to open up the curtains. He looked out to the night sky and watched the rain fall down to the busy streets of New York.

Peter had always liked the rain. It was always something that could calm his nerves. He used to lay in bed and listen to it for hours when he was upset. It always helped.

In the tower, Peter couldn’t hear the rain. Probably something Tony did for people with enhanced hearing. He thought.

Peter wanted to hear the rain, he wanted to feel it on his skin. Peter turned from the window and walked to his bedroom door.

000

Immediately when Peter stepped into the rain, any anger or sadness washed away. Everything was just so perfect. He took off running along the sidewalk, not sure where he was going or when he would stop, but he didn’t care.

It just made him smile.

He ran as fast as he could until he found himself running along the edge of a large lake at a park. He stopped before he passed it, and looked out over the lake. There was a dock from the park that went about 25 feet forward into the lake with a bench at the end.

The boy turned and walked to the end of the dock, admiring the beauty of the night. He sat down on the bench and pulled his knees up to his chest, hugging them against his body.

000

Peter didn’t know how long he sat there for, but eventually he felt his toes start to go numb from the cold rain, and decided it was time to head home. 

Peter never had much trouble with directions, and he found his way back in about 30 minutes with no trouble. He had enjoyed the rain, but was ready to go inside and take a nice, hot shower to warm himself up.

He walked into the lobby of the tower and was walking towards the elevator when he heard an unfamiliar voice ask, “Peter?”

The kid whipped around and his jaw dropped. There, walking towards him, was none other than Bruce Banner. 

Of course Peter started to mentally freak out. Oh my god. OhmygodOhmygodOhmygod. Bruce Banner is standing in front of me. The Bruce Banner is standing in front of me and knows my name. Oh. My. God.

“Peter?” Bruce asked again, concern evident in his voice. “Why don’t we step into the elevator?”

All Peter could do was shut his mouth and nod, realising how much of a fool he was making of himself.

When the elevator doors shut, Peter couldn’t stop the rush of words flowing from his mouth. “Oh my God, you’re Dr. Banner! This is so crazy! You’re like the coolest scientist ever! I’ve studied so much of your work and even did a project about gamma radiation last year because of you! This is so crazy!”

Bruce couldn’t help but smile. “Take a breath, Peter. I’m glad you like my work. I have to say it’s nice someone recognizes me for being a scientist for once.”

“Well of course I would! This is crazy, I’m so happy I get to meet you!” And then the question dawned on Peter. “Wait. How do you know my name?”

The elevator came to a stop and the doors opened up to reveal the penthouse. Bruce started walking out with Peter close behind him. “Well, I’ve met you a couple of times when you were unconscious.” 

Bruce nodded to one of the chairs at the counter and Peter sat down at it while Bruce started making hot chocolate.

“When?” Peter asked.

“Well, as you know, I’m a doctor, and earlier today Tony called me with a bit of a… issue.”

Peter wore a confused look for a few moments before he realized what the doctor meant and a blush rose up his cheeks. 

“And, being your doctor and all, Tony had to tell me a bit of extra information.” This time, Peter knew exactly what he meant. He opened his mouth to ramble out something when Bruce raised his hand. “Don’t worry about it, I won’t tell anyone. I understand the importance of keeping your identity a secret. Which, by the way, I myself would be interested in learning about how all of this came to be.”

Peter couldn’t help the smile that tore across his face. Dr. Banner, his favorite scientist and avenger, (besides Tony of course) was interested in learning about him!

“I actually live a few floors down and have a lab of my own. Right now probably wouldn’t be the best time to get into all of the details, and I’m actually leaving tonight and am going to be gone a couple days. So maybe some other time.” Bruce said as he handed Peter a mug of hot chocolate, looking the boy up and down.

The blush on Peter’s face deepened, and he took a sip of the drink after embarrassingly saying, “Right.”

“Which brings me back to what I wanted to ask you. Why were you out in the rain in bare feet? And after your injury? I told Tony that you needed to be resting. Speaking of, where is Tony?”

Peter subconsciously dropped his gaze to the floor. “Um, me and him got into a bit of an argument earlier, and I kinda told him to leave me alone. And I was resting for a few hours. But I think he’s mad at me. He’s been in his lab ever since we got back.”

Bruce watched the boy nervously fiddle his fingers around the mug he was holding, and felt bad for the kid. “I doubt he’s mad at you Peter, he is probably just upset that he can’t really fix this yet, y’know? That’s Tony’s thing, he fixes stuff.”

Peter nodded his head and brought his gaze back up to the doctor.

“It’s kind of late, and I’m sure you guys will figure it out. Maybe just give it a night and you guys can talk tomorrow morning.”

Peter gave a sheepish smile and said, “Thankyou, Dr. Banner”

“Of course, Peter, you’re a good kid. And you can just call me Bruce.” The doctor smiled back.

Peter's smile turned into a genuine one, and he stood up to shower when he realized something. “Wait a second, Dr.- Bruce, you said you met me a couple of times. When were the other ones?”

Bruce sighed and dropped his gaze to the floor. “Well, I don’t know if I should be the one to tell you this, but a few months ago, some of the rogue avengers moved back in. And when Tony… carried you up here a few nights ago, we had all been up here.”

Peter's face paled and his eyes widened for the umpteenth time. “...Who?”

Bruce was hesitant before saying, “Clint Barton, Natasha Romanov, and Steve Rogers.”

Peter’s eyes went wider than he thought was possible when he said, “Oh god, so they all know who I am? And that I live here?”

Bruce nodded in affirmation. 

“And, do they know about…” His voice trailed off before he finished.

“Well, Peter, not from what I am aware of. I don’t think Tony has told them, but I’m not sure.”

Peter just nodded his head, not sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. They were going to find out at some point, weren’t they?

“And how is that going with Tony?” Peter quietly asked.

A small smile crept onto Bruce’s face. “It was a little awkward at first, but ever since you showed up, there hasn’t been an issue.”

“Really?” Peter couldn’t tell if the doctor was joking with him or not.

“Really.” The doctor said.

Peter felt butterflies jump in his stomach. “Oh my gosh, do I get to meet them too?”

Bruce huffed a laugh at the boy's excitement. “We’ve all been pretty eager to get to know you, but Tony wanted to wait a bit. And I understand that.”

The excitement Peter just held vanished, and quickly turned into a pinched expression. “I’m sorry about your aunt, Peter.”

Peter broke their eye contact and mustered out a small, “Thankyou.”

They sat in silence for a few moments until Bruce said, “Well, it’s getting kind of late. You should probably change out of those wet clothes and get some rest so you're fully healed.”

Peter nodded his head and stood back up and put his mug in the sink. 

“Goodnight, Peter.” Bruce said. “I hope to see you soon.”

“Goodnight, Bruce. It was nice meeting you.” Peter smiled at the doctor once more before turning and walking to his room.

He showered and crawled into bed, quickly falling asleep.

000

Peter was kneeling in front of his uncle with blood on his hands. He couldn’t see anything through the tears leaking out of his eyes beside the outline of Ben lying lifeless on the floor. Suddenly the tears were gone, and Ben was staring at him with fire in his eyes. 

He grabbed Peter by the collar and rasped, “You could’ve helped me. You could’ve done something.”

He shoved the boy backwards and Peter expected to meet the ground with his back, but all he saw was a bright flash of light and he was lying on his stomach with a crushing pain on his back.

He heard the vulture murderous laugh and him say, “This is all on you Peter. If you would’ve just listened to what I said, you wouldn’t be here right now. You wouldn’t be left to die.” Toomes laughed again before Peter saw him zoom out of sight. 

Peter tried to lift the rubble on top of him, but had no success in doing so. He tried again and again, but the weight wouldn’t budge. Eventually he was able to shift enough to get good leverage under him, and he lifted the rocks above him.

He moved his hand to have better support when a searing pain coursed through his hand. He looked to see a massive shard of glass impaled into his hand.

He screamed in agony and dropped the rubble above him, the pain crushing him until he couldn’t breathe. Once again, everything flashed white.

He was standing in front of May’s body. He could feel the cold of her skin radiating around him. Suddenly her eyes flashed open, and she started yelling at him.

“You little brat! I wouldn’t be here if it weren't for you! It’s all your fault! Wake up!”

Peter’s eyes filled with tears as he begged May to stop.

“Shut up! Ben wouldn’t be dead if we hadn’t suddenly been stuck with you! Pete, wake up!”

“May, stop! Please stop!” He cried.

“It’s all the stress you caused that made me die! It’s all your fault! PETER, WAKE UP!”

Peter bolted upright in bed with a gasp. He saw Tony standing over him with his hands on his shoulders, and concern and worry etched on his face.

The boy immediately broke down into sobs with his hand hiding his face.

“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! Please don’t hate me! I don’t know what's wrong with me!” He sobbed into his hands. 

Peter felt the bed dip next to him and his hands were gently pulled from his face. Tony was sitting next to him and wrapped the boy in his arms, slowly pulling him under his chin.

“Shhh, nothing’s wrong with you, Pete. And I forgive you bud, it’s okay. I could never hate you.” Tony cooed the boy.

This just made Peter sob harder. He wrapped his arms around Tony and fisted his mentor's shirt in his hands. They sat there for a while until Peter calmed down enough to talk.

“I’m sorry, Tony. I don’t-- I don’t know what made me so mad about it. You were just trying to help. I’m sorry.”

“Hey, it’s okay bud, I understand. You were never meant to see those books.”

Peter shot his head up to look at his mentor in the eyes. “I wasn’t?”

Tony couldn’t help but smile at the boy's innocence. “Of course not. I just wanted to know how to help you. I’m kinda new at this parenting thing.”

Peter smiled at the older man’s words and tucked his head back into the crook of his neck. “I’m sorry I’m making it so hard for you.”

“Hey, Pete, you’re doing nothing wrong. Life is going to be hard for a bit right now, but it will get better, I promise.”

The physical and emotional comfort made Peter sigh in contentment, but it came out in more of a yawn.

“Do you think you can get some more sleep, Kiddo?” Tony asked, noticing the boy’s yawn.

Peter tightened his hold on Tony and pushed his head further into the man's neck. “I want to stay with you.” He whined.

Tony smiled in affection for the boy and quickly reassured him. “It’s okay, Pete. I could use some rest. How about we lay down?”

Peter relaxed his grip around Tony, so the billionaire gently lowered them back onto the pillows and pulled the blanket over them.

“Goodnight, Pete.” He whispered

He kissed the top of Peter’s head and nuzzled a little closer to him before they both fell into a peaceful sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a bit longer than normal, so I hope you guys enjoyed it!


	4. Depression

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ever since Peter had his chat with Bruce, his anger had washed away. And nothing was replaced. No joy, no sadness, no laughter, and no despair. There was just nothing there. He woke up the morning after his nightmare and wasn’t able to find the energy to get out of bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys are being so sweet about feedback! I’ve had all positive comments and for that I am so thankful! If anyone has any prompts, feel free to message me with them. I won’t be starting any until I finish this story, and I also have a few of my own I want to write. But I am still welcoming any ideas! 
> 
> Also, I am going camping for the next week and will not have my laptop with me, so it’s gonna be a couple of weeks until the next chapter is released. Because of this, I’m going to be making this chapter extra long. Enjoy!

Ever since Peter had his chat with Bruce, his anger had washed away. And nothing was replaced. No joy, no sadness, no laughter, and no despair. There was just nothing there. He woke up the morning after his nightmare and wasn’t able to find the energy to get out of bed. 

He laid on his side for an hour and a half, thinking about May. Thinking about all the fun things he used to do with May. Having movie nights, going out for larb, or walking through the streets of Queens when there was nothing else to do. And that last though made Peter think of Ben. 

Ben had died on the streets of Queens. He shouldn’t have. He should have been eating dinner with Peter and May, or showing Peter pictures of himself that reminded him so much of his nephew. Something a dad would do.

And that made Peter think of his parents. Mary and Richard Parker. Peter didn’t remember much about them, but he knew he loved them. He was happy with them. And he was sad when he wasn’t.

He was starting to get too sad for just having woken up, so he tried to silence his head by just watching the clock on his nightstand tick by. He had hitten the two hour mark, and yet made no move to get up.

As Peter should have guessed, Tony tapped on his door, and Peter called a light, “Come in.”  
Tony walked in and smiled at Peter.

“Hey, Kiddo. I’m gonna make breakfast. Got anything in mind?” Peter shook his head and pulled his blankets further onto his body.

Tony watched him for a moment. “Okay, I’ll see if I can find a new recipe. How about you get up and shower or something?” 

Peter just shrugged, not in the mood to tell the man he did last night. Mainly just not in the mood to talk at all.

Tony looked at him for a few more moments before turning to leave. “I’ll tell you when the food’s ready.”

Peter hummed in response, shutting his eyes and nestling his head into his pillow.

000

When Tony finished cooking, he called Peter out to the kitchen. The boy slowly shuffled out of his room and to the table. They ate in almost silence. Tony kept trying to make conversation, but Peter would only answer with things like, “Yeah, oh, or maybe.”

When their plates were cleared, Peter asked for permission to go back to his room.

“Are you sure you don’t want to do anything, Bud? We could go down to the lab for a bit.”

“Nah, I’m not really in the mood.” Peter answered, not meeting Tony’s eyes.

Tony was about to protest, but figured just to let the boy have some time to himself. “Okay, you can go back to your room. Let me know if you need anything.”

Peter nodded and walked back into his room.

He only came back out that day for lunch and dinner.

000

The next morning, basically the same events happened. Peter stayed in bed until food was ready. He sat at the table until he was finished eating. He didn’t try to make conversation or tune in on anything his mentor was saying.

When Tony stood up to bring their plates to the sink, he asked Peter again. “Hey, Bud, do you wanna come down to the lab today? I was thinking of some new formulas for your web fluid.”

In all honesty, Peter had no desire to work in the lab. But because he already turned down the offer once and ignored Tony the whole day yesterday, he figured it was the least he could do.

“Sure. Let me just go get changed.”

Tony smiled at him happily. “Sounds good. I’ll be in the lab.”

Peter walked to his room and got changed as slowly as possible. After pulling on an old science tee that was worn out and a pair of sweatpants, he made his way to the lab.

Tony was seated at a work bench tinkering with a repulser for his suit when Peter walked in. He smiled at his mentee and moved to the desk that Peter claimed his own.

He got into details about what he was thinking they could work on. Some sort of bungee web concoction. Peter agreed to working on the design for the web shooter while Tony made the fluid.

They worked for a few hours in silence, with Tony’s AC/DC playlist on a low hum in the background.

The two of them finished the bungee design and also cooked up a few more before Peter asked to work on some upgrades for his suit he thought of. Tony agreed and moved back over to a previous project of his.

They worked for about 45 minutes until the silence was interrupted. Peter had been using a soldering iron on his suit when he had kind of lost focus and zoned out. He dropped the iron onto the floor, with the tip of it falling directly onto his foot.

He jumped back when his skin got scorched and pulled his foot into his hands, bouncing on one leg with his eyes squeezed shut. Tony quickly made his way over to Peter, adding pressure to the boys shoulder so he would sit down. 

Tony bent down and picked up the iron off the floor, turning it off and putting it away. Peter pulled the leg that had the burn on it in front of him, cradling his foot and resting his head on his knee.

Tony bent down in front of him to get a look at the burn. “Ouch. That can’t feel good. What happened kiddo?” He asked, concerned.

Peter just shrugged with his eyes still squeezed shut. “Dunno, just lost focus I guess.”

“How did-- nevermind. Why don’t you be done for the day. You should probably lay down and get some ice on your foot. It doesn’t look horrible, nothing your healing won’t fix overnight.”

Peter nodded and stood up. Tony was quick to wrap an arm around his shoulder as Peter limped to the elevator.

Tony got Peter situated in bed with a bag of ice on the kid’s foot. “Do you want me to stay here, Kiddo? I can watch a movie with you or something.”

Peter shook his head and said, “No, that’s okay. You can go and finish what you were working on.”

Tony tried to study the boy’s face to see if he was hiding anything, but found nothing. “You sure, Bud?”

Peter nodded and closed his eyes. “I might just take a nap. Nothing exciting for you.”

Tony smiled at his kid. “Okay, tell FRIDAY to get me if it starts to hurt worse.” Peter nodded and could feel himself already falling asleep. The lights switched off and his door clicked shut.

000

Peter slept until dinner. 

And then went straight back to bed after.

000

Peter woke up the next day feeling absolutely miserable. Health wise he felt fine. Nothing out of the ordinary. But mentally, all he wanted to do was curl up in a ball and stay there forever.

The sadness felt like it was tearing him inside out. Peter didn’t know why he was so sad all of sudden. It just kind of happened. His eyes started tearing up, and suddenly the blankets on top of him felt like they were suffocating him.

He clawed them off of him with much more difficulty then what should have been, and jumped out of bed. He quickly left the room to go looking for the one thing he wanted.

He stepped into the kitchen to see Tony wiping his hands on a dish rag.

“Hey, Pete. I was just about to come get you, Fri told me you were awake.” Tony said with a smile.

Peter just stared at Tony for a long moment without moving, his eyes still full of tears. 

Tony’s smile quickly fell, and was replaced with a look of concern. He stepped forward and put a hand on Peter’s shoulder and asked, “What’s goin’ on, Kiddo?”

Peter stepped forward, wrapping his arms around Tony’s torso and tucking his head into the man's shoulder. Tony just stood there for a moment, not sure what was going on but quickly wrapped the boy into a warm embrace.

They both just stood there for a couple of minutes, Peter tucked safely into Tony’s arms while the latter rubbed a hand up and down the younger one’s back.

Tony didn’t know if he should be expecting an answer, but Peter answered that question for him when he said, “I don’t know. I don’t know what’s going on. I'm just really really sad and that’s all there is.”

Tony hesitantly asked, “Do you want to talk, Kiddo? Maybe if we talked you might feel better.”

Peter shook his head and said, “Not really. I don’t-- I don’t know what I want.”

“That’s okay, Bud. How about you sit down while I finish making breakfast? I’m making breakfast tacos, it should only be a few more minutes.”

Peter was quick to shake his head again, “I’m not really hungry.”

Tony gave him a questioning look and asked, “Are you sure, Bud? We haven’t eaten in quite a while and you have an enhanced metabolism, remember?”

The boy dropped his gaze to the floor, feeling bad for being ungrateful. “I know, I’m just not really in the mood to eat.”

Tony put his finger under the vigilante’s chin and tilted his head so their eyes met. “Kiddo, are you feeling alright? You’re not sick are you? I know you love breakfast tacos.”

“I’m feeling fine Tony. I’m seriously just not hungry.”

Tony looked at the boy for a few long moments before moving his gaze to the food on the counter. He surprised Peter by saying, “Bruce stopped by the lab a few nights ago.”

Peter couldn’t tell what Tony was going to say, so he just glanced at his mentor and said, “Oh.”

Tony surprised the boy once again when he spoke, “Now that you know about… the team living here… they’ve been dying to meet you. And since we don’t have anything to do today, how about we have them hang out up here?” I can’t take the silence anymore.

Peter must’ve stood stunned for a moment too long of Tony’s liking, because the older man clapped his hands together and said, “Alright, sounds like a plan. How about you go and get cleaned up while I call them up here.”

The boy stood in the middle of the kitchen for another few moments until his mind caught up with him. Okay, I probably shouldn’t say no to this since I already turned down the food he spent time making for me. This is fine. This will be fine.

“Oh-- okay. I’m just… gonna go shower.” He stammered out before turning and walking back to his room.

000

Peter stepped into the bathroom a minute later and started taking off his clothes. He set them neatly next to the sink and turned on the shower. He was about to step in when he realized that he didn’t have any soap left.

He walked back towards the sink and opened the cabinet underneath it to grab a bar. He found one and then stood back up. And there he was looking at himself in the mirror. 

His heart stopped for a minute at his first glance. Ever since he came to live with Tony, he hadn’t been showering as often as normal. Therefore he wasn’t shirtless as often as normal, and today was the first day he actually took notice of himself.

And he barely recognized him. 

The boy looking back at him had such a sharp jawline he thought it might rip through his skin. The ribs lining his sides were very much noticeable, and very much not healthy looking. He had dark, bruise colored eye bags, and his hair was much more, how do you say it, ratty looking? Basically, he looked horrible. And Tony probably didn’t know this was going on. Peter didn’t even realize what was going on until now.

He used to have to eat at least 3 meals a day with at least 3 snacks in between meals. And that was never enough. He always felt hungry and his stomach was always in small amounts of pain from it.

Ever since May died, he hadn’t felt that pain anymore. The only pain he had really been feeling was emotional. 

It’s probably a good thing. I don’t eat so much food that the cabinets are empty, and Tony doesn’t have to think I’m a pig.

But these thoughts didn’t help Peter. They actually made him feel worse.

But what if I start to feel hungry again? Tony will get mad that I didn’t tell him. And Tony might make me leave… God I’m so ungrateful. Definitely don’t tell Tony. He’s already giving me so much.

These thoughts didn’t help Peter either. He felt trapped. Like there was no way out of this without something going wrong. His eyes quickly filled with tears, and he rushed into the shower, dropping the forgotten soap on the wet tiles.

He looked down but everything was too blurry. He wiped his eyes, but that was no help because the tears just kept coming. He leaned back against the wall and slowly sunk to the floor, pulling his knees up to his chest and crying into them.

He kept trying to stop the tears, to catch his breath, but he just couldn’t. He was starting to feel disconnected again. Like what happened at May’s funeral.

But this time Tony wasn’t here. Tony can’t help him. Tony can’t ground him. His breath was starting to quicken even more and he started to feel lightheaded when FRIDAY interrupted his sobs.

“Peter,” she said in the most gentle voice a robot could manage. “Try to focus on breathing. You are risking passing out if you don't. Do you know the 4-7-8 breathing technique?”

Peter was able to answer with a slight nod and a muffled, “Y-yes.”

Peter remembered back in seventh grade when over half of their class had some sort of anxiety, so they all had to take a class to learn what to do in the case of an anxiety attack. He had completely forgotten about what they were taught up until FRIDAY’s reminder.

He had only used the technique once when he got a bad grade on a test. He was having trouble focusing in class because of it and the teacher had called him out on it. He had rushed to the bathroom and crumpled to the floor in one of the stalls when he tried it.

Peter couldn’t remember a ton of what else happened because he had tried to forget that day as best he could. But he figured to give it a shot before Tony had to carry his unconscious body out of the shower. What a good thing that would be.

Okay Peter, focus. Breath in for 4 seconds through your nose.

1-2-3-4

Hold it for seven seconds.

1-2-3-4-5

Peter blew out, not able to make it all the way.

C’mon, Peter. Deep breath.

1-2-3-4

Hold it for seven seconds.

1-2-3-4-5-6-7

And out of your mouth for eight seconds.

1-2-3-4-5-6

How? I need air!

Peter kept trying for the next few minutes and wasn’t able to get one perfect 4-7-8.

“Peter, I believe you are getting too frustrated with yourself. Just relax and only focus on breathing. You can do it.” FRIDAY spoke when Peter still hadn’t done it right.

That’s when Peter realized that he was tugging on his hair and digging his nails into his palms. He let go of his hair and stretched out his legs, relaxing his hands in his lap.

She’s right. Your spider-man. You can do this. 

In for four.

1-2-3-4

Hold for seven.

1-2-3-4-5-6-7

Out for eight.

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8

A smile broke his face at his success, and he kept on breathing 4-7-8 for another couple of minutes until he calmed down.

He stood up and took a few deep breaths before washing his hair.

“Thank you, FRIDAY. What would I do without you?” Peter smiled to the ceiling.

“I’m glad I could help.” She responded warmly.

Peter relaxed at her kindness and tried to enjoy his shower before he had to face the world again.

000

When Peter stepped out of his room, he was partially happy at the fact that the only person he saw was Tony. He wasn’t gonna lie, not all of the liquid dripping down his forehead was from the shower. In other words, this is the most nervous Peter has ever felt in his life.

Tony must’ve noticed something wasn’t completely right because he walked over to Peter himself and wrapped an arm around the boy’s shoulders.

“They should be up in, eh, a few minutes, they were just about to stop exercising or something.” Tony informed him as he led him over to the couch. “And Pete, honestly, if you need anything or things get too overwhelming, just let me know. They will understand.”

Peter swallowed deeply and nodded his head.

Tony gave him a soft smile and said, “I’m thinking we just watch a movie or something when they get here, nothing that should be too hard to handle.” 

“Okay.” Peter choked out in nothing more than a whisper. The blood rushing past his ears was giving him a hard time focusing. 

Tony took note of Peter’s furrowed brow and concentrated look. Tony started talking gently, “You feeling alright Pete? I think you should eat some breakfast.”

With both of the two focused on something, neither noticed the sound of the elevator opening and feet stepping into the penthouse.

What did grab their attention was a voice saying, “You haven’t eaten breakfast yet? It’s like, 10!”

The pair sitting on the couch both looked up to see 3 sets of eyes looking back at them. And as it turns out, the owner of that voice was none other than Steve Rogers.

Before Peter could even process what to say, Tony started talking. “Well hello, Mother-Hen. Good to see you too.”

Steve just rolled his eyes at the nickname, and turned his eyes to Peter. The soldier opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by one of his fellow Avengers.

“So this is what your eyes look like! I gotta say, you two really look like father-son to me. Except the kids eyes look a lot more innocent. Tony’s are written in snark. And witty. And mischief. And-” Even though Peter knew what Hawkeye- sorry, Clint, looks like, he wouldn’t have had to ask who that was. Tony had told him once that Clint was most like him humor-wise. He could definitely see the resemblance. 

Tony cut him out before he said anymore. “Aww, you're too sweet to me, Hawk-ass. I feel so loved.”

Tony got back several responses at once.

“I think you’ve been mistaken.” Clint grinned.

“Language! There’s a kid in the room, Tony!” Miss America herself.

“Boy’s, I’m really not in the mood to threaten someone.” Obviously Nat.

All of these responses got Peter giggling even though he technically wasn’t included in the conversation yet.

Clint was the first to notice Peter laughing, and a smile immediately split his face. 

“Wow. I already like the kid cuz of his smile.” The archer plopped down next to Peter. “I can tell you’re an easy person to like. But tell me, what made you like, you know,” Clint made a fake disgusted face and pointed at Tony, “him, so easily?”

This made Peter’s smile grow wider, he could already tell that Clint was the uncle-sort of friends. The Kid looked at Tony while saying, “Oh, it wasn’t easy. Took ages to like him.”

Tony put his hands to his chest in mock hurt and fell backwards onto the couch while whining, “My heart!”

Clint laughed at the banter and ruffled Peter’s hair. “Okay, I’m calling it. We’re keeping the kid.”

Peter grinned and turned his head to see Steve and Natasha both doing the same while moving to sit down on the furniture. 

Steve sat down on one of the arm chairs and asked, “Okay, my turn to ask questions. Why haven’t you eaten breakfast yet?”

Of course, the mother that Tony was turning into sat up and looked at Steve. “Oh, go ruin the fun Cap, whatever. Although I do agree, anyone with an enhanced metabolism should eat breakfast.”

The reminder of food made Peter feel just how he did before the interruption.

Sad and a little bit too much pain in his chest.

He moved his attention to grabbing a blanket and saying, “I thought we were gonna watch a movie.”

Tony narrowed his eyes at Peter when he turned back towards the couch with a blanket in his arms. “And you’re telling me that you’re not hungry.”

Peter plopped back onto the couch and wrapped the blanket around his shoulders. “I don’t feel hungry.”

The silence of the room lasted a whole 2 seconds before Steve said, “Well that’s because you need good food!” Steve stood up and walked to the kitchen. “How do crepes sound?” Steve asked Peter. 

“Oh, Mr. Rogers, you don’t ha-” 

“Yes he does. I wanna see what the Capsicle can cook up. You like crepes, Pete?”

The only thing Peter could think of that would make Tony stop babying him was saying, “Never had them.”

This time Natasha spoke up, “Oh, trust me, if Cap’s cooking you’ll like them.”

Tony smiled at Nat and called, “Crepes for two!”

“Three!”

“Four!”

The group on the couch heard the Captain call back, “Crepes for 5 coming right up!”

Peter smiled at the family feeling he felt in his chest from the past two minutes of meeting-

“Oh, and Kid, it’s Nat, Clint, and Steve. Figured I should let you know since you only know people's last names.” The billionaire leaned in and whisper-talked, “They actually go by their first names.”

The three others in the room all smiled at Tony’s sarcasm. “I’ll try my best, but I make no promises.”

Tony ruffled the kids hair and reached for the remote next to him. “So, what are we watching?”

Clint stood up and walked towards the bathroom. “I vote for a movie series so we have a reason to have movie nights!”

The relief in Peter visibly showed as he sank into the couch. They like me. They want to come back. They like me!!!

“How about Harry Potter? You need to be educated, Tony.”

Nat spoke, sounding offended. “Tony! You’ve never seen Harry Potter before?”

Peter’s eyes widened and his fanboy fell through. “You like Harry Potter? I finally have someone to watch the movies with!”

“Well of course I do. Who doesn’t? Me and Clint have seen all 8 movies.” Natasha smiled kindly at Peter, and Peter couldn’t help but smile back. The way she smiled was oddly comforting, along with her voice. She spoke to him like May used to.

“Wow, Clint’s right, you do have a cute smile.”

Peter’s face turned bright red as Tony complained, “Hey, shush it Romanov. He’s mine to embarrass.”

Peter covered his face with his hands and tilted his head onto the back of the couch. “Oh come on, Pete. At Least she’s not wrong.”

Peter groaned into his hands, making Tony reach over and pull them off. “Well Kid, if you don’t like our compliments, then you’ll just have to put up with THIS.”

Tony lunged at the boy on his last word and pinned him on the couch, and he started ticking Peter’s stomach and chin.

“No, no, stop! Stop!” Clint stepped out of the bathroom to see Tony in full parent mode on top of the kid. Peter kept laughing and gasping for Tony to stop, so Clint decided it would be a good idea to take a picture.

He stood behind the back of the couch and lifted his phone so you could see the duo in the background. He smiled widely and gave a thumbs up, clicking the button.

Right after he got the picture, Tony noticed and reached up to grab the archer’s phone and threw it on the loveseat across from him.

Peter took the distraction as his chance to break free from Tony’s grasp and scrambled out from under him. He clutched his stomach and was trying to catch his breath as Steve carried in a few plates of food.

“Oh no, what did I miss?” He asked as he set the plates on the coffee table.

Clint sat on the loveseat and picked up his phone, turning it on to look at the picture. “Don’t worry, Cap, I got it documented.”

Steve smiled and sat back down on his chair with a plate of food. “So, did I hear we are watching Harry Potter? I’ve been waiting to see those movies.”

Peter leaned forward and grabbed a plate while saying, “Okay, we are definitely watching Harry Potter if two of you haven’t seen it.”

The rest of the group followed Peter’s lead in grabbing a plate and leaning back to watch the movie.

“Play the first Harry Potter, FRIDAY.” Tony said before taking a bite of his food.

They all ate their brunch in peace as the movie danced along the screen in front of them. When Peter felt stuffed to the brim, he set his plate back onto the coffee table where Tony’s was already resting, and leaned back into the couch.

Without a word, Tony wrapped an arm around Peter’s shoulder and tugged him into a lying position. The boy rested his head on his mentor’s lap and didn’t even notice the soft smiles directed his way from the other 3 Avengers.

He pulled his blanket further up until it was just beneath his nose and settled back in to finish the movie.

000

Peter woke up to the sound of hushed voices around him. He wasn’t even sure when he fell asleep, but he knew it hadn’t been too long because the movie they were watching was still playing, just coming to an end.

“I thought you wanted to wait a bit longer before we met him. What changed your mind?” A voice whispered next to him. That’s Natasha. I like her voice.

He felt Tony suck in a breath before whispering even quieter, “He was having a rough morning. He normally is starving for breakfast and he wasn’t even hungry, I didn’t know what else to do to get him to eat. He kind of put himself on bed rest the past two days, only coming out of his room to eat. And then after I called you guys, FRIDAY told me that he was crying in the shower. I didn’t really get the chance to talk to him though because you arrived just as he came back out.”

No one spoke for a few moments until he heard Natasha talk again. “I feel bad for him. He’s too young.”

“I know.” Tony shifted and started carding a hand through the boy's hair. “I know.”

000

Natasha looked down at Peter when Tony started combing his hair. She noticed his eyebrows twitch and he squeezed his eyes just a fraction tighter, but she noticed. 

He was sad. And she couldn’t help but notice how much frailer the boy looked than the last time she saw him sleeping.

The last time he was asleep, he looked somewhat peaceful. Yes, he did have a red face and drying tears on it, but he wasn’t anything like he was now.

Now his face was pinched in almost an uncomfortable expression. Now his face was turned in a sort of pout. Now, his lip was quivering just the tiniest bit.

The chair Natasha was sitting on was positioned so she had to look past Tony and Peter to watch the TV, so her watching the kid went unnoticed. She watched his lip quiver for a few more moments and his eyes scrunch up even further.

Tony was still brushing his hand through the boy’s hair and Peter seemed to be leaning into the touch.

Oh. He’s awake.

She kept watch on him for a few more minutes, wanting to tell Tony if she thought he should bring Peter to another room.

Eventually, his face relaxed and his lip stopped moving. That’s when she realised how protective she already felt over the kid. She just wanted to hug him and tell him everything would be okay, but if all she could do right now is make sure he didn’t burst into tears in front of the Avengers, she would do it.

000

Peter eventually woke up again and this time there were no voices. The TV was turned down and some random channel was on the screen. The first thing he noticed was that Tony was no longer underneath him. The second thing he noticed was that he wasn’t the only one in the room.

Peter opened his eyes to see Natasha sitting next to him with her eyes on the screen. He moved a little bit so he could see her better, and she moved her gaze onto him. She gave the boy a soft smile as he started to sit up.

“Mornin’, sleepyhead,” She said.

All Peter did to respond was give a sleepy smile back. He started looking around the room to find Tony, and of course Nat knew what he was doing because she said, “Tony went to pick up some chinese. Steve went with because he wanted to get the paper. And Clint went with, well, for reasons no one knows.”

She gave Peter a small smirk and Peter couldn’t help but giggle a little bit. They sat there for a few moments before Natasha broke the silence.

“How ya feeling?” She asked him.

“I’m feeling alright.” He responded.

Natasha hummed in acknowledgement, but didn’t stop there. “And how are you really feeling?”

Peter looked up to meet her eyes, and she looked back at him with sympathy. The kid opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. He shut his mouth before looking at the ground.

“It’s okay,” Natasha comforted him. “You can talk to me.”

Peter started fiddling with his hands and kept staring at the ground. He really hadn’t been feeling like himself lately. He had been feeling… numb. Even when he was sitting with the Avengers and having a movie day, he hadn’t felt fully okay.

His chest felt tight. It felt like someone was reaching into his chest, grabbing his heart, and squeezing it. He felt like he wanted to scream so loud until he had no voice left. He felt like he wanted to do something, anything, just to get his mind off of the pain.

Whenever Peter used to have particularly bad days, some being from school, some being from patrol, he would go to May. There was no way to hide it from her. She always noticed. She noticed how his lips would be pulled into a tight line and he would have his hood over the top of his head. He had tried to tell May that he was fine, just cold, but she saw right through him.

So any day that May wouldn’t be at work and she would see her nephew like this, she would wrap him up into a warm hug and kiss the crown of his head. She would wrap the two of them up in a warm blanket and they would watch TV on the couch until they fell asleep. 

Occasionally, on the really bad days, Peter would cry into May’s shoulder. He never liked that he did it, never liked putting his stress on May, but he just needed to tell her. Tell her what had been hurting him so much and how upset he was about it. And she might have let a few tears slip herself. She would always deny it, say she was fine, that she had her focus on him. But Peter knew the truth.

And when Peter would wake up in the middle of the night with himself tucked safely into May’s side, he would feel good. All of his sadness would be gone, and so would the pain

So when Peter felt a hand on his shoulder, he looked back up at Nat. Again, she warmly smiled at Peter. And there it was. That smile that he missed so much. That smile that looked like May. He didn’t hesitate to lean forward and wrap his arms around Natasha’s stomach. And she didn’t hesitate to hug him back.

Peter tucked his head under Natasha’s neck and she rubbed her hand up and down his back to comfort him. He did what he normally did without thinking.

“It’s been so hard lately. I’ve been so sad and it hurts. It physically hurts. My chest just gets heavier and heavier every day and I can’t stand it. And this is the fourth time I’ve lost someone. I thought it would get easier. It’s supposed to get easier. But it doesn’t. It just gets harder and harder and harder. And I just miss her so much. And I’m sorry I lied but I’m not alright and you smiled at me and you remind me so much of May and it just hurts.”

Natasha rested her cheek on the top of Peter’s head and hugged him a little bit tighter while slowly starting to rock them back and forth.

“I’m so sorry, Peter. I’m sorry it hurts so much. When stuff like this happens, things get hard. Everything feels like it’s going wrong and it takes a bit for things to stop hurting.” She paused for a bit to just keep comforting Peter before continuing. “And even though you’ve done it before, it doesn’t really get easier. It hurts knowing that you’ll not get to be with that person anymore, it does. But the hurt will stop. I promise.”

Peter sagged a little bit more into Natashas embrace and she moved her hand to his hair like Tony had been doing before.

They sat there for a few more minutes until Peter felt like he wasn’t going to burst anymore. He knew that Natasha won’t be the first one to pull away, so he slowly unwrapped himself from her and looked up at her eyes again.

“I’m sorry about that, I didn’t mean to be a both-” Peter was cut off before he could finish.

“Don’t-- Tony told us you’ll try to apologize at anything you do, and I see he was right. I really don’t mind, Peter. I’m glad I could do something to help you. And I’m really sorry about your Aunt. You shouldn’t have to be going through this kind of stuff so young.”

Peter managed a small smile with shiny eyes. “Thank you. And I’m sorry if what I said about my Aunt made you uncomfortable… I just… I used to sit with her like this some days and just spill my guts out, I never really realize what I'm saying until after I say it.”

Natasha huffed a laugh at the boy’s innocence and pulled him in for another hug. “You didn’t make me uncomfortable, Peter. I really don’t mind, and I’m glad you can feel some sort of comfort from me. If you ever want anyone else to talk to, I’m always here.”

She pulled away from the hug this time to look at the kid’s eyes. “And I mean that.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Peter said with a smile.

The two of them turned their attention to the TV after their moment, and sat there for a few minutes until the elevator opened.

Tony, Clint, and Steve walked in with a couple bags of chinese and a paper tucked under Steve’s arm. The looked over to the duo on the couch and then walked to them, setting the food down in front of them.

“Good to see you all made it back alive.” Natasha joked as she grabbed one of the takeout boxes.

“Oh, it was quite a job.” Clint said and winked a Peter who laughed.

It was surprising how quickly Peter had become comfortable around the other Avengers. He had expected there to be a bit of an awkward stage before they formed some sort of friendship, but Peter already had them each placed into groups.

Clint was the fun uncle who would slip drinks to the teens and yell, “They tricked me!” if they were caught.

Steve was a mix between a fun brother and a caring grandma. He would be making sure that everyone had had enough food to eat and that they were all feeling healthy, but would also be easy to convince to sneak out with in the middle of the night.

And Natasha was the glue of the group. She was the best friend that knew what everyone was thinking without being said, and would always be one step ahead of everyone else. But to Peter, she was also a bit more than that. 

At he didn’t think wrong of himself for thinking that he was the only one that received that sort of attention from her. 

It was nice.

Clint suddenly plopped down on the couch in between him and Nat with two boxes of food in his hands. He handed one to Peter before opening his and picking up a piece of chicken with his chopsticks. “So, Squirt,” He said. “Tony tells me that you like to play Mario Kart. What do you say I kick your butt in a game?”

Peter’s eyes widened in joy. “Really? Tony never plays Mario Kart with me!” He exclaimed in joy.

Clint laughed and glanced over to see Tony walking into the room. “That’s because Tony doesn’t know what fun is.” He said extra loudly to make sure Tony took notice.

“Hey! You better watch what you say Legolas or you might be on the receiving end of Tony Stark's ‘you’re gonna regret it’ pranks.”

Clint looked up and thought out loud. “You know, I might be kind of interested to see what Tony Stark can cook up.”

Tony rolled his eyes and in one quick motion, sat down on Peter’s other side and grabbed the pillow that would have been behind him, smashing it into Clint’s face.

Clint slowly looked over to Tony with a playful death glare and said, “Oh, I would definitely hit you back, but I’m thinking of a more mature way to battle this out.”

The archer smiled at Peter, and Peter looked excitedly at Tony while yelling, “Mario Kart tournament!”

000

Later that night, after Clint, Nat, and Steve had gone back to their own floors for the night, Peter laid in bed staring at the ceiling. When he woke up earlier that morning, he hadn’t been expecting for the day to go by so easily. 

It felt like the day should have gone by at turtle-speed, but it didn’t. He had fun. He smiled, he laughed. It was different. Good different.

The team had all had their own ways of cheering Peter up. Steve cooked, Clint played games with him, and Natsha’s presence was enough to help.

But right now, no one was here to cheer Peter up. And he felt alone. Not alone like he had this morning, but alone feeling like you haven’t seen another human in 3 weeks. He didn’t want to sleep. He wanted to go and be with people and he wanted to know that they were there to stay.

Peter turned his head to the alarm clock on his nightstand. 12:32 AM. Wow, I must’ve been really deep into my thoughts. I got in bed at 9.

Peter turned onto his other side and shut his eyes, trying to get some sleep before morning. He kept moving and fidgeting around, but sleep just couldn’t seem to find him.

When the clock next to him read 1, he decided he wasn’t gonna find sleep there. Peter stepped out of bed and into the dark hallway, thanking his enhanced eyesight for not letting him stumble into a wall.

He turned to see that Tony’s door was cracked open and it looked like there was a light coming from inside.

The boy hesitated before stepping forward and peeking his head inside. Tony was laying on his back with a few pillows propped underneath his head, and he was tapping away on his Stark-pad while the TV in front of him played a random show on mute.

Tony looked up when Peter moved the door open a little more, and tiredly smiled at him. “Hey, Bud. Why aren’t you asleep?”

Peter looked down at the floor, embarrassed that Tony had to ask him that. He rubbed a hand on the back of his neck and quietly said, “I uh… I couldn’t sleep.”

Peter heard shifting next to him and looked up to see Tony scooching over and lifting the corner of the sheets up, inviting Peter into his bed. Peter gave Tony a look saying, ‘You sure?’.

Tony smiled again and said, “I need to get some rest anyway, just couldn’t build up the courage to set this down.” He gestured towards his tablet. “C’mon, don’t keep me waiting.”

The boy didn’t hesitate further and crawled in the bed next to Tony and rested his head on the man's chest. Tony set the tablet down on his nightstand and curled an arm around Peter.

He kept his eyes on the silent TV, and Peter assumed he wanted Peter to fall asleep first. But the kid didn’t want to. He followed Tony’s lead and watched the colors on the TV screen flash by.

After five minutes of them laying there, Tony brought his hand up to rest on Peter’s forehead and started gently stroking the bridge of his kid’s nose with his pinky.

With the warmth of Tony’s body next to him and the comforting hand on his head, Peter was having trouble keeping his eyelids open. He kept fighting them though, trying to stay awake with Tony.

The latter seemed to notice what the boy was doing, and he tilted his head to the side and planted a kiss on the kid’s forehead. “Get some rest, Pete. I’ll stay right here.”

And so Peter caved, letting his eyelids fall shut and his mind rest.

000

Light started shining in his eyelids, so he cracked them open to see where the light was coming from. Peter sat up and looked around to realize he wasn’t in his own room. And then he noticed the sound of someone else's breathing, and saw Tony asleep next to him.

He smiled as he remembered what happened last night. He was about to curl back up against Tony when he heard movement coming from outside the bedroom door. Confused as to who would be out there at- he looked at the clock- 11 AM. Okay, maybe just confused as to who was out there, he carefully crawled out of Tony’s bed, trying not to wake him, and padded over to the door.

He slowly cracked it open to see Steve in the kitchen cooking something by the stove. Just a second later, the elevator opened and Clint and Nat walked in.

Clint spotted him watching from the door and said, “He’s alive!”.

Steve turned to him and smiled. “Morning, Son. I’m making some biscuits and gravy for breakfast. Is Tony awake?”

Peter smiled back and walked further into the living area. “No, I just woke up and he was still asleep. We were up pretty late last night and I’m not sure when he fell asleep.”

“That’s okay, he can sleep. Why don’t you sit down, the food will be ready in just a few minutes,” Steve responded.

Peter sat down at one of the chairs at the table, and was happy to see that Nat and Clint did the same thing. The four of them just chatted about anything and everything while Steve finished the food and brought it to the table. Tony stepped out of his room as they all started to eat, and smiled at the sight before him.

Peter was smiling and talking easily to the others, making them laugh and joke. It was nice seeing his boy happy again. It had been a while. Peter looked up to see Tony looking at him with joy in his eyes, and smiled happily at his father figure.

“Come eat! Steve made really good food!” Peter said excitedly to Tony.

Clint took that moment to throw a grape at Peter’s head, but the boy’s sixth sense warned him and he caught it with ease, popping it into his mouth. “Thanks! I was running low on fruit.”

Clint scoffed and reached forward, grabbing a grape off of Peter’s plate. “Hey! You’re bullying me!”

The archer stuck his tongue out at Peter and said, “Then you shouldn’t have eaten mine.”

Tony took a seat next to Peter and started dishing himself some food. “Now, now, children. No need to fight.”

Peter giggled at Tony’s teasing and started babbling about whatever he had been before Tony made his entrance. Tony smiled and joined in on the conversation every now and then.

Who better to help? He thought happily to himself.

000

For the next couple of days, the team would wake up with the same routine. Peter would walk out of his room, sometimes Tony’s, to see Steve, Clint, and Nat cooking in the kitchen.

Sometimes, Tony would still be asleep until the food was finished, sometimes he would walk out with Peter, and other times, he would already be there when Peter showed his face for the first time that day.

But it was nice.

He had a normal.

Something to look forward to everyday and something to make him happy. 

It’s just what families do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright guys, I almost doubled my normal word count for this chapter since I won’t be posting for a while. If you have any prompts, feel free to message me. Leave a comment on what you think of the story! See you in a couple weeks!


	5. Bargaining, Pt. 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Suddenly, this felt so very wrong to Peter. He didn’t want Tony to leave him. He didn’t want to kill Tony just because he was a burden. It’s the people I love that die because of me. He realized while Tony whispered calming words into his hair.
> 
> 'If I love Tony, he’s going to die. I can’t let that happen.'
> 
> From that moment, he decided that he wouldn’t do anything to entertain the relationship between him and Tony. Even if it hurt like hell.
> 
> 'If that’s what it takes to save him, I’ll do it.'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And I’m alive!!!! I’m sorry this chapter took so long to update, I actually didn’t even start writing this chapter until September 1st. (Which I only got like 10 words in and then picked it up again like a week and a half later) I think once I finish this story and am able to just write one shots, stories will be posted on a normal schedule. I’m actually going to split this chapter into two parts because I just couldn’t fit everything into one. So, the story will end up having seven chapters. The part two should come out in only about a week or two because I already have the majority of what happens planned out. Enjoy!

A/N- And I’m alive!!!! I’m sorry this chapter took so long to update, I actually didn’t even start writing this chapter until September 1st. (Which I only got like 10 words in and then picked it up again like a week and a half later) I think once I finish this story and am able to just write one shots, stories will be posted on a normal schedule. I’m actually going to split this chapter into two parts because I just couldn’t fit everything into one. So, the story will end up having seven chapters. The part two should come out in only about a week or two because I already have the majority of what happens planned out. Enjoy!

000

Peter had breakfast with the team every morning. And for the first week after meeting them, things were okay. Peter still had some rough moments, but he would always have someone to support him and help him through it. And for that first week, everything seemed it would be okay.

But Peter was a Parker. And what happens when you’re a Parker?

No one knows for sure. But most of the time, it’s nothing too good...

000

It happened at the worst time possible. Nat, Clint and Steve left for a SHIELD mission and wouldn't be back for at least another week. So the only current residents at Stark Tower were Tony and Peter. 

And of course Tony had finally let Peter go on patrol again.

The first night of the two being home alone, Peter had a nightmare. He hadn’t been having nightmares as much since the team started hanging around. He would have a few here and there, but they were so minor that he felt comfortable falling asleep if he woke up from it.

But the one he was currently having, wasn’t going to be as generous as he would like.

Peter was just a toddler. He was waving goodbye to his parents from his Uncle’s arms. 

He didn’t know it would be the last time.

Aunt May and Uncle Ben later walked into Peter’s guest room at their apartment with red rimmed eyes. They told him that Mommy and Daddy won’t be coming home anymore. They were going to go to a nice place called heaven. Peter was too young to understand what really happened.

He cried and cried and cried. Why did they leave him? Was he too bad of a child to stick around for? What did he do wrong?

Peter’s parents suddenly appeared in front of him with looks of shame in their eyes. “We left you because you are worthless, Peter! You're such a mess! We can’t put up with you anymore! You are not worthy of us!”

Then everything dissolved around Peter into nothing. It was just 4 year old him crying into his knees. And then everything came back.

Now Peter was in his apartment, arguing with Uncle Ben. Normally, in the rare occurrence that the two were arguing, it would just be in sharp whispers so May wouldn’t hear them. But May wasn’t home.

Ben’s voice had raised to a yell, and before Peter knew it, he was yelling back. Then a door was slammed in Peter’s face and he was no longer in his apartment.

He was on the ground of a gas station, hands covered in Ben’s blood. He was pushing fiercely on the gunshot wound in Ben’s chest, but it wouldn’t be enough. Tears were dripping from his chin, mixing with the blood and dirt surrounding him on the floor.

A bloody hand took hold of the front of Peter’s shirt, tugging so hard that Peter had to restrain himself from falling face first into the ground. He looked to Ben’s face, which showed pure and utter betrayal. 

“This is all your fault, Peter! If you weren’t such an ungrateful, stupid little brat, I wouldn’t be here! It’s your fault!” Ben rasped.

Then everything dissolved again, and Peter was screaming at the blood on his hands and overwhelming pain in his chest. He felt like he was going down the world's tallest roller coaster as the world around him came to life once again.

Now he was next to the cot May’s body was resting on crying into her chest. His head was knocked from her torso when she sat upright, shoving Peter off of her.

“Get off of me! This is all on you Peter!” She stood from the bed and shoved him off the chair he had been on. “It was you that killed me! It’s your fault Ben died and it’s the stress you put me through that killed me!” 

She took another step towards Peter and shoved him back again. “You're a piece of trash! Just little scraps of nothing that was thrown onto Earth! Your parents left because of you, Ben left because of you, and now I’m leaving because. Of. You!” On the last three words she shouted, she shoved him further away from her for each of them.

Once again, the room dissolved and Peter was staring where May had previously been with silent tears running down his face. He felt strong winds rush past him as light surrounded him in a place he had found most comfort from lately.

He was sitting next to Tony in the lab, watching the billionaire work on something for one of his suits. Peter didn’t move, just stayed in place and tried to push the panic down with the comforting presence of Tony.

And then Tony collapsed and fell to the floor, twitching and yelling in pain. The world turned into a blur, with people rushing around him and telling him to get away. 

The kid blinked once and was now sitting next to a hospital bed with a sleeping Tony occupying it. He watched Tony sleep, not having the motivation to do anything else.

Suddenly Tony turned his head in Peter’s direction and gave him the most terrifying glare imaginable. “I’m dying. I’m going to die because of you. I wouldn’t be here right now if you didn’t force your way into my life! I never asked for a kid. I hate you, Peter! You ruined my life!”

The machines connected to Tony suddenly started beeping like crazy, and before Peter knew it, Tony’s eyes rolled back into his head and his chest was no longer moving.

And then the hospital room wasn’t a hospital room anymore. Peter was standing in a field of grass stretching on for as far as the eye can see. The vigilante turned around to see all of his parental figures towering over him with anger covering their faces.

“Piece of trash!”

“Ungrateful!”

“Worthless!”

“I hate you!”

“Stupid little brat!”

“It’s your fault!”

000

Tony woke with a start. He had been having one of those rare nights where he had a very peaceful sleep. And he didn’t want it to end. He rolled back over and shoved a pillow over his head. He felt bone-deep exhausted, and wondered why he was even awake.

Hold on. What woke me up?

On cue, FRIDAY’s concerned voice swept across his room. “Boss, you need to get up. Peter is having a nightmare again and his heart rate has risen to dangerously high levels.”

And suddenly, Tony wasn’t tired anymore. Coincidence.

He quickly jumped out of bed and rushed to his door. He almost slammed head first into the door, and had to stop for a moment to calm the sudden head rush he had.

When his vision reappeared, he pulled his door open and rushed to Peter’s where he could already hear the kids terrified whimpers. This time, he tried to be a bit quieter in entering the room so he wouldn’t startle the kid. He gently pulled the door open and walked as quietly as he could to Peter’s side.

“Please,” the boy whimpered, breaking Tony’s heart. “Please, I’m sorry. Please stop, please.”  
Peter’s pleas weren’t coming out in anything more than a whisper, and that’s how Tony knew how terrified Peter really was. The kid seemed to shut himself down when he was scared or nervous.

Tony didn’t want Peter to wake like he did last time he woke Peter up from a nightmare because he was worried what would happen if the boy's heart rate got any higher. Instead, Tony pulled the sheets off of Peter and put a hand on Peter’s shoulder while tangling the other one in Peter’s hair.

“Pete,” He whispered in his softest voice, only reserved for Peter. “You’re okay, Buddy. You’re safe, Tony’s here.”

Peter's eyes clenched shut as if confused and he shook his head a little. “Please,” the boy tried again.

“Peter,” Tony tried again, a little louder this time. “You’re okay, Kiddo. Just open your eyes for me. You’re just dreaming.”

Tony knew he was somewhat getting through to Peter when the latter reached his hand to the one Tony had tangled in his hair. Tony knew the kid found comfort in this more than anything.

“That’s right, Kiddo. You’re okay,” He cooed.

Peter’s whimpering had stopped and his eyes twitched a few times before opening to see Tony. Tears immediately fell from his eyes and a sob broke loose from Peter’s lips.

“Oh, Pete,” Tony said before pulling the young boy into his arms.

000

When Peter opened his eyes, he expected to see Tony’s dark glare in front of him, but only saw concern and comfort on it. The events of his dream scared Peter that Tony might leave him, and he couldn’t help the sobs that fell from his lips.

Tony pulled Peter into his arms and rubbed a hand up and down his back, trying to comfort him and get his breathing back to normal.

Suddenly, this felt so very wrong to Peter. He didn’t want Tony to leave him. He didn’t want to kill Tony just because he was a burden. He stayed as stiff as he could and while he didn’t pull away from Tony’s embrace he didn’t fall into it either.

It’s the people I love that die because of me. He realised while Tony whispered calming words into his hair.

If I love Tony, he’s going to die. I can’t let that happen.

From that moment, he decided that he wouldn’t do anything to entertain the relationship between him and Tony. Even if it hurt like hell.

If that’s what it takes to save him, I’ll do it.

000

Tony noticed Peter’s tense posture that never faltered, but he didn’t mention it. Right now he was only worried about making sure Peter’s breathing was back to normal and that the kid was okay.

Peter’s breathing wasn’t at the level that risked making him pass out, but still much too fast for Tony’s liking when the boy pulled away.

Tony was confused why Peter broke the embrace, because normally Tony would have to be the one to pull away after a much longer wait. Before Tony could voice his thoughts, Peter spoke.

“I’m-- I’m sorry I w-woke you. I’m okay now. You can go back to bed.” Tony wasn’t surprised by the kid’s guilt, but the way Peter had pulled away so fast, he had a hard time thinking of what to say over the surprise.

“Buddy,” He finally managed out. “You know I’m glad to be here to help you. Don’t apologize.”

Peter just looked to the ground in response. “Do you think you’ll be able to get back to sleep? Or do you just wanna have a movie night or something?”

Peter's response was so quick that Tony was surprised Peter didn’t just read his mind.

“No!... I-- I mean, no. I’m f-fine. I might just shower to refresh and then go b-back to bed. You can go back to your r-room.”

“Are you sure, Pete?” Tony asked. “I don’t mind staying up with you.”

Peter was already getting off of his bed and walking to the bathroom with shaky legs. “I’m f-fine. Really, Mr. Stark.”

Tony knew that Peter really wasn’t fine, going from Mr. Stark to Tony and back again, but Peter was already in the bathroom and turning to shut the door.

“Just let me know if you need anything, Kiddo.”

Peter nodded and shut the door without another word. Tony didn’t move and just stared at the spot Peter was just laying and crying in for a few moments before shaking his head and standing up with a sigh, planning to go and lay in bed until morning came.

He didn’t hear from Peter again that night

000

When Tony noticed the time read 7:30 on his Stark-pad, he rolled out of bed to get ready. He went to the bathroom to shower, only taking about five minutes to do so. He dried off and brushed his teeth, fixed his hair and got dressed.

Tony walked into the kitchen to make breakfast for Peter. He decided on some simple omelettes and toast. He threw some bread in the toaster before mixing some eggs into a bowl.

“Boss, if I may, I believe you are making enough food for two people.” FRIDAY announced.

Tony stuck out his hands in question and looked to the ceiling. “Yeah? And I can’t because…?”

“Mr. Parker has already made breakfast for himself.” The AI calmly replied.

Tony didn’t really know how to react to that, given that Peter's levels of taking care of himself had dropped very low recently.

“Okay…” He said after a few moments. “Did he eat what he should’ve?” Tony got the affirmation from FRIDAY just as the elevator door dinged open.

Tony turned, expecting to see Peter, (because who else would it be?) and was surprised to see Bruce walking in.

“Hey, Tony.” The doctor greeted with a smile.

Tony smiled in return, mind wandering from the food at the stove. “Hey Brucie, good to see you’re back! How was your trip?”

Bruce took a seat at the counter while answering, “It was nice, fun to get away for awhile.”

Tony nodded as he turned back to the stove, now wondering what to do with the extra food. “Hey, are you hungry? I’m making double servings.” He asked.

“That’s alright, the other half is for Peter, right?” 

Tony’s face furrowed as he dropped some cheese into the pan of eggs. “It was, but FRIDAY just informed me that apparently he already ate, I’ll have to check that out in a bit. So, what’s it gonna be? You want the food? Yeah? Okay. Coming right up.” The billionaire left no room for argument.

Bruce ignored Tony’s comment on the food, instead deciding to focus on what he said beforehand. “How is Peter doing, by the way? He’s not eating with you?”

Tony flipped one of the omelets onto a plate and grabbed the toast from the toaster. “He’s doing alright, the team has been around for the past week and I think they have been making it a lot easier for him. He usually eats with all of us, it’s kinda weirding me out that he made food on his own, but whatever. Maybe he just got hungry.”

Bruce nodded while listening to Tony’s words and smiled as a plate of food was handed to him. “Maybe check up on him?” He suggested. “He very well could’ve just wanted food, but y’know, just to be safe.”

Tony set his plate of food down on the counter and wiped his hands on a dishrag. “Yeah, you’re probably right, I’ll be right back.”

Tony walked out of the kitchen and towards Peter’s bedroom door, where he could faintly hear the sound of music playing as he got closer. He figured Peter might not be able to hear him with it on, so he skipped knocking and walked into the boys bedroom. “Hey, Pete?” He said, sticking his head in the room. He expected to see the boy laying on his bed or sitting at his desk, but was surprised by an empty room.

He opened the door wider, heart starting to beat a little bit faster. “Peter?” He called again. Nothing.

“FRIDAY? Where is he?” He asked, evident worry growing in his voice.

“It appears Mr. Parker is in his suit. He is located at the-” The Irish accent was cut off by Tony’s interruption.

“Okay, why wasn’t I told he left?” He snapped.

“Mr. Parker asked me to not tell you.” She sounded almost apologetic. Almost.

Tony grabbed his hair and spun in a circle, not knowing what to do first. “Why would he ask you that? And why would you follow through with that? That is completely against your coding!”

“Boss, I believe you should calm down. Mr. Parker is located at a cemetery in Queens.”

Suddenly, Tony’s anger melted away. He had no right to be mad at Peter for wanting some time to cope.

Scratch that. He had very little right to be mad at Peter for wanting some time to cope. He should have told Tony that he was leaving, but the damage was already done.

And all it was was a small dent. Nothing that couldn’t be easily fixed.

Suddenly, a hand on Tony’s shoulder startled him out of his thoughts. He turned to see Bruce standing behind him with a look of worry on his face. “Tony, what’s going on? Is Peter okay?”

Tony wiped his hands over his face before smoothing out his hair and heading back to the kitchen with Bruce following behind. “Peter’s fine. Apparently the kid snuck out in his suit to… cope for a bit. I’m just gonna let it go though. Let him have his time.”

He sat down at the counter and pulled his plate closer to him as Bruce sat down. He took a bite of toast and looked over to Bruce with an unreadable expression on his face. “Wh’t?” He asked around a mouthful of toast.

Bruce huffed a smile before turning to take a bit of his food. Tony waited for an answer while the doctor ate. Bruce swallowed and looked back to Tony who was still looking at him. 

“That kid has really turned you soft, hasn’t he.” The man said it as more of a statement than a question.

For some reason, Tony didn’t feel the need to deny it. “Yeah, I guess he has.”

The pair ate in silence for a few more moments before Bruce spoke up again, changing the subject. “So, how has that attempt at nanotechnology been going? Have you gotten anywhere with it?”

This was why Bruce was one of Tony’s favorite people to talk to. He always had something to talk about and he was actually interested in what Tony had to say. “Well, I’ve made progress, but it’s nowhere near done. I figured out how to get the molecules to transfer from the arc reactor to around me, but I don’t know how to turn it into a suit yet.”

The Science Bro’s ate their breakfast while chatting about different things to experiment with in the lab, and completely forgot about anything else.

000

90 minutes later, long after dishes had been cleared and Tony and Bruce had moved to the living room to have a more comfortable area to discuss in, the balcony doors opened and Spider-Man stepped in. Peter pulled off his mask before realising that he had company in the room. Just as Peter looked up to see the pair sitting on the couch, Tony spoke up.

“Morning, Kiddo. You feeling alright?”

Peter nodded to confirm before smiling at Bruce and greeting him with a hello.

“Hey, Peter. It's good to see you again.” Bruce kindly spoke to the boy.

“It's good to see you too, Bruce.”

A moment of awkward silence passed before Tony’s phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket to see Pepper’s face lighting up the screen. He stood and started walking out of the room while saying, “Pete, why don’t you go get changed. Lemme answer this then we can go work in the lab or something.”

Peter nodded once again, staying unnaturally quiet as he walked to his room.

Tony stepped into a hallway and hit the green accept button on his phone. “Hey, Pep. What’s up?”

Tony heard a sigh from the other end of the line before a stressed Pepper answered him. “Hey, Tony. I know this is a kind of sucky time to do this to you, but I’m in DC right now for some meetings and I just got out of one with Justin. I think you should get down here and deal with this. He has got a massive bodyguard now and is being an absolute prick to everyone. It shouldn’t be long, but I could really use the help.”

Tony didn’t answer for a moment as he contemplated his options. “God, Hammer is gonna be the death of me. I mean, I don’t really want to leave Peter. Bruce just got back today though, so I don’t have to worry too much about him… if I come down, you promise I don’t have to stay for any boring meetings?”

Pepper huffed a small laugh at the other end of the phone. “I promise, Tony. Just the one thing.”

“Alright, Pep, I’ll be there in a bit. Love you.”

“Thank you, Tony. I love you too.”

Tony ended the call with a sigh before walking back into the living room. He found Peter back in his normal clothes with a web shooter in hand, showing Bruce how it worked.

“Maybe we could go to my lab and see what other combinations we could make from the web fluid. I’d be interested to see what we could come up with.” Bruce said to Peter.

Peter smiled and nodded excitedly jumping up to head to the elevator.

“Hey, Pete, um Pep just called me, there is a small issue in DC I have to deal with. Will you be okay if I’m gone for a few hours? If it’s not, I can always-”

“No, you can go, Mr. Stark. Me and Bruce are going to go to his lab for a bit anyways.” Peter didn’t even smile or anything, just turned and got into the elevator.

Right. We’re back to Mr. Stark.

Tony turned to Bruce to see what the man thought. “It’s good, Tony. You can go. I’ll watch out for him.”

Tony sighed in relief. “Thanks, Brucie. I won’t be gone for too long.”

“Alright, see you later.” Bruce got into the elevator where Peter was bouncing on his heels with excitement.

“See you guys.”

The elevator door snapped shut before Peter responded. Something to dwell on later. RIght now I have to save my girlfriend from certain doom.

Tony went onto the balcony where a suit formed around him, and he flew to the skies for his trip to DC.

000

Tony landed on the roof of the tower 3 hours after he left. The suit was disassembled from around him as he made his way into the penthouse. He was expecting to find Peter curled up on the couch or in the kitchen getting food, but was greeted with an empty room.

“FRIDAY, where’s Peter?” He asked as he walked into the living room.

“Mr. Parker is in Dr. Banner’s lab. Would you like me to send for him?” 

“No, that’s fine. Bruce is with him, right?”

“He is.” She replied.

Tony hummed in acknowledgement as he sat down on the couch, pulling out his phone. He started running through emails Pepper had told him he needed to check, and did so for about twenty minutes.

Eventually, the elevator dinged open and Peter and Bruce walked out. Tony looked up from his phone to watch as the two headed into the kitchen to grab some food, most likely for Peter. The pair didn’t seem to notice Tony, too entranced in whatever one of Bruce’s studies from years ago they were talking about.

Tony stood up and joined them in the kitchen while Peter grabbed some crackers from the cupboard. Peter turned around and saw Tony walking towards them, and quickly glanced back to his food. The billionaire pretended not to notice so he wouldn’t embarrass Peter in front of Bruce.

“Hey boys. How was your playdate?” 

Bruce rolled his eyes at the comment and Peter just kept his eyes trained on his food. “It was fun. You were right about Peter, he’s smarter than I expected. And I expected pretty highly given what you said.”

Peter’s ears pinked at the praise and he gave a soft smile to the doctor. “Thank you, Bruce.”

Bruce smiled back and turned to the fridge to get something to drink.

“So, Pete,” Tony said. “You wanna go down to my lab for a bit and we can work on some updates for your suit? Or we could just watch a movie if you’re checked out for the day.”

Tony waited a few moments for a response before Peter answered. “Actually, I was thinking I could go over to Ned’s today? I haven’t seen him in a long time and he just got the newest Star Wars lego set.”

Peter had called Ned to make up for lashing out at him a few days ago. His friend forgave him and made the offer of having him over sometime, and Peter was quick to say he would figure something out.

Tony was surprised at Peter’s rejection of spending time in the lab with him, but again, didn’t mention anything about it. “...Uh yeah, sure, that’s fine. Want me to drive you there?”

Peter looked back down to his food, not willing to meet Tony’s eyes. ”Um, actually I haven’t seen Happy in a while, is it okay if he brings me?”

Tony looked over to Bruce to see he was still preoccupied in mixing some tea to notice what Peter was saying. “I’ll call him and see what he’s up to.”

“Thanks, Mr. Stark.” Peter smiled. Even if Peter was pushing Tony away, he could still use his manners.

000

Half an hour later, Peter hopped into the backseat of Happy’s car and buckled in. He was surprised to find the divider between the two of them was down for once. The boy didn’t start talking besides a greeting, not wanting to annoy Happy.

After a few minutes of silence, Happy couldn’t help but ask, “You okay, Kid?”

Peter met Happy’s eyes in the mirror and gave a small jerk of his head. “M’fine.” He said.

Happy broke their eye contact as they kept driving, making Peter assume the conversation was over. “I don’t believe you.”

Peter looked up again, but Happy kept his eyes trained on the road. He didn’t answer, and he didn’t even know what he would say if he did.

The rest of the car ride was filled with silence.

000

When Peter arrived at Ned’s the mornings events washed from his mind. They spent their afternoon like old times. Laughing at memes, building legos, and watching Star Wars.

Ned didn’t even mention anything about Tony or May, which Peter was deeply grateful for. He knew his best friend knew something was wrong, but Ned knew that if Peter just needed a distraction, he would give it to him.

And he wasn’t complaining about it. Ned had missed Peter, with suddenly going from seeing each other every other day to a few weeks apart.

000

The afternoon had passed far too quickly, Peter decided, as Happy’s SUV pulled up in the garage of Stark Tower. Happy parked the car and Peter quickly jumped out, yelling “Thanks, Happy!” just as he slammed the car door shut. 

Peter hurried to the elevator and got inside, not wanting to talk to Happy anymore. The elevator boosted upwards as Peter checked his watch.

8:30. Mr. Stark might be in bed.

The elevator opened up and Peter stepped into the penthouse. The lights were dimmed and Tony was sitting on the couch, watching what looked like Men in Black on the flatscreen.

Peter tried to get past Tony with no conversation, but of course that didn’t work. The TV paused and Tony turned to look behind the couch where Peter was silently walking.

“Pete?” He asked.

Peter paused in his tracks, obviously hearing the hint of concern in Tony’s voice. The boy turned his head towards Tony, a silent invitation to keep talking.

“Can we talk for a-” Tony was cut off by red lights flashing and sirens starting to wail loudly.

Peter dropped his phone with a wince, covering his ears and twisting his eyes shut. Tony immediately jumped up and rushed towards Peter to block him from any attackers that might be around.

“FRIDAY! Turn the alarm off! What’s going on?” Tony all but shouted to the ceiling.

Everything immediately quieted down and Peter sighed in relief.

“Boss, there tends to be an Avengers emergency located in Miami, Florida. From the information I have, it looks as though some sort of chemical has been released and there are dangerous amphibians attacking the city.” The AI reported.

Peter perked up at the mention of an Avengers mission, and started running towards his room to get his suit.

“Where are you going?” Tony asked.

Peter turned around, confused. “What do you mean? I’m getting my suit.”

“No. Uh uh. You said no to the position on the Avengers which means you said no to this mission. You’re staying here.”

“But Mr. Stark-” Tony quirked an eyebrow, daring Peter to continue.

Peter quit talking and bowed his head to the ground in disappointment. “You need to stay Peter. It’s for your safety. Promise you’ll stay?”

Peter walked to the living room and flopped onto the couch with a grumbled, “Yes, sir.”

Tony stared at the boy on the couch before realising there was an emergency. “I’ll be back in a bit. Bye Pete.”

All Tony got back was a small “Bye” before he rushed out of the room to get a suit on.

000

Nine hours later, Peter woke up in front of the TV which played the morning news. Confused, he sat up, stretching out his arms as he turned towards the elevator. Steve, Nat, and Clint stepped into the living room with dark eye bags underneath their eyes.

“Hey,” Peter croaked. “How come you guys are already back? I thought you were gonna be gone for like a week.”

Steve shuffled into the living room and sat down, resisting the urge to fall asleep right then and there. “Hey, Pete. You didn’t see the news? We left the SHIELD missions for the Avengers one.”

“Oh,” Peter replied. “Must’ve fallen asleep.” He looked around again, suddenly realising something. 

“Hey, where’s Tony?”

000

And there you have it! After nearly a month, chapter number five. And we’re even left off on a cliffhanger! I promise, the next chapter shouldn’t take as long as this one did to come out. I just needed a break for a bit from writing one chapter a week, and then school started and things got complicated. I’ve kind of figured out a schedule now though so I should have an easier time updating stories! Happy Reading!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there you have it! After nearly a month, chapter number five. And we’re even left off on a cliffhanger! I promise, the next chapter shouldn’t take as long as this one did to come out. I just needed a break for a bit from writing one chapter a week, and then school started and things got complicated. I’ve kind of figured out a schedule now though so I should have an easier time updating stories! Happy Reading!


	6. Bargaining, Pt. 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony looked around his small hospital room, trying to figure out what got him here in the first place but came up with nothing. He remembered watching a movie in the penthouse, and Peter showed up and there was an alarm and-
> 
> Oh my god. Where’s Peter?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N- I’m actually kind of proud of myself, I got this chapter out much sooner than I expected. I feel like this story has flown by! Only one chapter left to go. Don’t forget that I will still be posting Irondad and Spiderson fics so stay tuned on my account when this story is over.
> 
> Also, I do have a fanfiction account under the same name, rosesandribbons. That is the only other place my stories should be uploaded to. I do not give consent for anyone to republish my stories anywhere, and please let me know if you find someone else who did.
> 
> I wrote off the problem in this story very quickly, and that will be unlike future stories. Read the bolded words below for more.
> 
> Enjoy!

A/N- I’m actually kind of proud of myself, I got this chapter out much sooner than I expected. I feel like this story has flown by! Only one chapter left to go. Don’t forget that I will still be posting Irondad and Spiderson fics so stay tuned on my account when this story is over.

Also, I do have a ao3 account under the same name, rosesandribbons. That is the only other place my stories should be uploaded to. I do not give consent for anyone to republish my stories anywhere, and please let me know if you find someone else who did.

I wrote off the problem in this story very quickly, and that will be unlike future stories. Read the bolded words below for more.

Enjoy!

000

A/N- In this chapter, we’re going to start with Tony’s POV and then go back in time to Peter’s, so please don’t be confused! Also, I know I really rushed this chapter and solved the problem with little difficulty to the characters, but I wanted this chapter to be more about taking some of the weight off of Peter’s shoulders than having any issues. I apologize if you dislike how this chapter roles!

Tony woke up from a small ache pulling on his stomach. There was a familiar hand holding his own, and he felt like he was sitting on a cloud. He was floating in between the stages of sleep and consciousness, perfectly happy where he was. But then a pain in his right leg flared up, disturbing his peaceful rest.

“Tony, are you with me honey?” That was Pepper. Pepper was warm. Tony likes Pepper. “Can you open your eyes for me?”

It took an embarrassingly long amount of time, but eventually Tony found the right muscles to pull his eyes halfway open. He had to blink his eyes a few times to remove the blur, but eventually he was able to make out that he was in a hospital room, and Pepper was sitting next to him.

“H-” He tried to greet Pepper, but all that was released was a string of coughs.

“Maybe don’t try to talk just yet. I’ll go grab Bruce and get you some ice chips, okay?” Pepper leaned forward and placed a kiss on his cheek before walking out of the room.

Tony looked around his small room, trying to figure out what got him here in the first place but came up with nothing. He remembered watching a movie in the penthouse, and Peter showed up and there was an alarm and-

Oh my god. Where’s Peter?

Tony quickly sat up and kicked the blankets off of him while starting to pull the IV from his arm. Suddenly Bruce appeared in front of him, grabbing his hands to stop him from causing damage to himself.

“Tony, you need to stop. Lay down.” Bruce told him in a firm voice.

Tony shook his head and breathlessly responded to Bruce while trying to pull his arms from the doctors grip. “No. No where’s Peter? Did they get him? Is he hurt? I need to see Peter.”

“Tony. Look at me.” Tony kept his eyes trained on Bruce’s hands. “Tony.” He said in a much firmer voice.

Tony decided to look up, scared of what he might find. “I need you to sit back down. First of all, I have no clue who “them” is, you need to elaborate further. And second of all, you are in no condition at all to be up and walking around. If there is anything you could do to help Peter, it would be to sit back down in this bed and wait for your body to heal. Odds are if you stand up, you’ll pass out and be asleep for another two days.”

“I was asleep for two days? What happened?” Tony said as Pepper walked into the room with a cup of ice.

“Sit back down and we’ll tell you all you need to know.”

Tony decided to listen to the doctor, knowing his point was correct but not willing to admit it.  
“Fine.” He grunted as he got back into bed and Bruce fixed his IV.

“So. What’s going on?” Tony asked when the doctor still hadn’t said anything.

“Let me get the others in here. They know the full story.” With that Bruce left the room, and came back five minutes later with Nat, Steve and Clint.

“Okay, something is definitely wrong. Where’s my kid?” The others gathered around Tony’s bed with grim looks on their faces, and Bruce took a seat by Tony’s feet.

“We’re kinda hoping you might know. You asked if “they” took him? Who’s they?” Bruce asked again.

Tony closed his eyes and let his head flop backwards knowing what the unspoken truth was. “I don’t know! All I can remember was a siren going off in the penthouse when Peter got home. Did someone take him? Did you ask FRIDAY?”

“Okay, well that doesn’t help us at all.” Clint said. “The siren was for the Avengers level threat. Chemical Release? Lizards gone rouge? Any of that ring a bell?”

Suddenly Tony remembered all of the events from Miami. He had stayed in the skies to figure out the reptiles weaknesses and had been shooting them down from there. The biggest one was yellow and spit some sort of burning acid that Tony had never gotten to look into. He had deemed the reptile “Sunny” due to its traits.

Sunny had gotten distracted when Cap’s shield had smacked it in the face, blinding one of its eyes. Tony had used the distraction to sneak up from behind to get a good hit to its head. Sunny had whipped around just as Tony fired his repulsors, getting acid spit all over his abdomen and Sunny’s tail had whipped around and spiked him in the leg. Then everything had gone black.

“Shit, yeah. Did Peter show up? I told him to stay! I swear to-” Tony had started to sit up again and Steve stepped forward and placed an arm on his shoulder.

“Tony, you need to stay calm. Peter was still in the penthouse when we got back the morning after the fight. We told him what happened and that you were in the Medbay. He sort of freaked out, but we don’t really know what happened after. He said he was gonna take a shower and then maybe would come down to see you, but after an hour we went up to look for him and he was gone. His suit is still here, but some of his dresser is empty and his phone and backpack are gone too.”

Natasha stepped in here, wanting to make Steve’s point clear. “We don’t think anyone took him Tony. We think he ran away.”

Tony’s jaw clenched as he ran his hands through his hair, the events of three days ago running through his head. Peter had a nightmare and Peter had shut him out. Tony got back from DC and Peter had shut him out. Peter got home from Ned’s and Peter had shut him out. And everything clicked into place.

“Oh god. Oh no oh no oh no. That’s not good. The nightmare- he was… oh nonono.” Tony started panicking and his breathing picked up.

Pepper stood from her chair and moved to sit on Tony’s bed. “Breathe, Tony. It’s okay.” She said while placing a hand on his chest.

The team took a few minutes to make sure Tony’s breathing was under control before continuing. “Tony,” Bruce started. “What nightmare? Did something happen with Peter?”

Tony nodded and swallowed harshly, clearing his throat a few times before speaking. “Yeah, last night- no, three nights ago, the first night you guys were gone,” He gestured towards the three standing by his bed. “He had a nightmare. Never told me what it was about, and I never really got the chance to talk to him about it. After I woke him up, he was really weird though. Wouldn’t really let me touch him and pulled away from me as soon as he could. He was avoiding me that whole next day. I was gonna talk to him but then we got the alert for the mission-- oh Peter. God, he’s blaming this on himself. He ran so he couldn’t hurt me.”

The five others in the room look at each other in confusion before turning back to Tony. “Honey, what do you mean so he couldn’t hurt you? Peter would never hurt you.” Pepper asked.

“No, but think about it. His parents left when he was young and then passed in a plane crash. He was so young, would he even understand what really happened? And then his Uncle died in front of him, which was from stopping a bullet from hitting Peter. And then May’s passing was so sudden, don’t you get it? And c’mon, we’re talking about Peter Parker here. He has the biggest guilt complex known to mankind.” 

Now, they understood. Peter left because he thought he was a curse.

“Have you been looking for him? Have you found anything?” Tony asked.

“We’ve been looking, but haven’t found a single lead. He doesn’t have his suit so we can’t track him and we have no way of knowing where he went.” Steve informed him.

“Well, has anyone been in contact with Ned Leeds?” Tony asked, looking around hoping to see negative responses on their faces. And for once, he got what he wanted.

“Who’s Ned? And how do we contact him?” Clint questioned.

“I’ll do it. I need to get up to my lab though.” Tony said, already starting to get up again.

“Tony-” Bruce started.

“Yeah, yeah whatever. I’ll keep the IV in.” 

“Okay, but you need your rest. Like I said-”

Tony cut him off once again. “Dammit, Banner. Let me get up to my lab! I’m no help to Peter when I’m staying down here!” He snapped, immediately regretting it. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I promise I’ll go to sleep when I’m tired, but please, let me help him.”

Bruce just watched Tony for a moment, not liking the decision he was about to make. “Fine. But if you’re tired and not laying down, we’re bringing you right back down here.”

“Yes, okay, good.” Tony planted his feet on the floor and stumbled a little, but Steve quickly jumped forward and stopped him from face planting. Once Tony regained his balance, he grabbed hold of his IV pole and they slowly walked out of the room.

000

Ten minutes later, Pepper was helping Tony sit down in his chair in his lab. They had gone to the penthouse first to change Tony out of his hospital gown and into some fresh clothes while the others went to the lab.

Now Tony was happy to be sitting in his lab, pulling up Ned Leeds contact information. He had exchanged numbers with Ned after homecoming, just in case there were any further emergencies Peter was keeping from him and Ned thought it was getting out of hand.

Tony didn’t hesitate to hit the call button, his phone only ringing once before a breathless Ned picked up the phone. “Hello, Mr. Stark? Is Peter okay?”

Tony was partially impressed by how little Ned was fanboying over him. (Not to be a douche or anything, but the way Peter had described him, he wasn’t expecting this reaction at all).

“Yeah, hey Ned. I was really hoping you would be the one to answer that for me. We think Peter… ran away a couple days ago and we have no clue where he went.”

The line was silent for a few moments before Ned responded. “Uh, no. I have no clue where he is. I actually haven’t even tried to be in contact with him for the past couple days, I thought he might need some time after what happened in Miami, y’know?”

Tony was mentally screaming, now that they really had no way of knowing where Peter went. Tony had completely forgotten there were other people in the room until Steve started talking. “And he hasn’t spoken to you at all? Nothing from the past couple days?”

Ned noticed the change in person, but didn’t mention it. “No, I haven’t even seen anything on social media about his patrols, just thought he was taking a break for a bit.”

Steve locked eyes with Tony with a look of confusion. ‘Patrols?’, he mouthed.

Tony gave him a look as if saying, ‘Not right now’, and Steve didn’t push further.

“Well, then I guess we don’t have much to talk about. Thanks, Ned.” Tony said.

“I’m sorry I can’t help. Let me know when you find him.”

“Don’t worry about it, we will. Talk to you later.” The call ended, and Tony was dwelling on what Ned had said.

Not if, but when. Tony was going to find his boy.

000

Right after the team had left to go back down to the Medbay, Peter sprinted to his room and quickly packed a bag. He was about to grab his suit when he realized it had a tracker, and left it without another glance.

After finding enough clothes for at least a week and any spare money he had laying around in his room, he left. Peter hopped into the elevator and went down to the ground level. He didn’t give the tower another thought as he started walking south. He didn’t know where he was going, nor where he would stop, but he just kept walking.

Peter had stopped at a homeless shelter to get some food before his long journey. And for three hours, Peter walked. He didn’t take the chance of wasting money on what could be used for food to travel, so he walked. And walked. And walked.

Eventually, he had gotten so tired that he couldn’t even stand up straight anymore. He quickly walked into an alley and settled down behind a dumpster. He placed his backpack under his head and fell asleep the second his head hit the ‘pillow’.

When Peter woke up again, it was dark out. Which meant he slept for at least eight hours. His stomach hurt from hunger so he stood and turned to grab his backpack, which was no longer there. He looked around, thinking maybe he had kicked it under the dumpster, but it was nowhere to be seen. 

And then he noticed his feet. Yes, his feet. Not his shoes, not his socks, his feet. His phone had been in his backpack too, which meant he had nothing left besides the clothes on his body and the watch on his wrist. Accepting his fate, Peter turned and left the alley. His stomach rumbled in anger, and twinged with pain.

Having a super metabolism really wasn’t doing him any good in this situation.

Peter wasn’t quite sure where he was going to get food without any money, because he no longer had his phone to help him locate a homeless shelter. When he stepped into the street, he had a difficult time finding his way through the hustle and bustle of people.

Must be rush hour.

When he smelt the faint scent of bread, from maybe a quarter mile away, he started walking in that direction. Normally he would be sprinting towards the smell, but he was supposed to have something to eat at least every hour with his metabolism, and it had been well over a day. Since he wasn’t eating anything to give him energy, he didn’t have any.

So as a result, he was limping through the street clutching his stomach, with nothing but disgusted looks from the strangers around him. He was having a harder and harder time making distance. Too many people were surrounding him, he was most likely headed into sensory overload, and his stomach just hurt so bad.

Peter’s vision started to swarm and go black around the edges, so he stopped and grabbed onto a lamppost to steady his balance.

The people around him showed no mercy, and just as his head started to pound, some random woman ran into him, knocking him to the ground.

And then everything went black.

000

“911, what’s your emergency?”

“Yes hi, um, I was just walking home from work and I ran into some boy. He passed out and I don’t know what to do.”

“Okay ma’am, does he have anything with him, something that would indicate his name?”

“Umm, no I don’t see anything. Oh wait!” She paused to pull back Peter’s sleeve when she noticed a bump to see a wristwatch. There was a small engraving on the band that said- “He has a watch on, but nothing else. He looks sort of homeless. The watch, It says Peter P!”

Suddenly, an Irish voice came over the speakers. “Transferring call.”

“What?” Said the lady.

Now, a male voice that sounded a lot more human was speaking. “Your call has been transferred due to loss of connection. We will bring an ambulance to your location. Where are you currently located?”

“Oh…” She trailed off, confused by what just happened.

“Ma’am, if this boy is in any medical danger, we are going to need your help. Where are you located?”

“Right, let’s see, it looks like I just passed the donut shop, so I must be on Elmore Street. Right outside of the deli.”

“Thank you, we will be at your location in approximately 7 minutes.”

There was a beeping indicating the ending of the call.

000

Peter came back to consciousness with a pounding head, aching stomach, and an unfamiliar hand on his arm.

That last one urged him to open his eyes.

He opened them to see a random lady, maybe mid-forties, leaning over him with concern washed over her face. After blinking his eyes a few times, he realized that the woman was saying something.

“-eter? Peter, can you hear me?”

The boy furrowed his brow in confusion. “Who is Peter?”

“Oh, I’m sorry hun, I saw the name on your watch and thought that was you. An ambulance is gonna be here in a minute to help you. What’s your name?” She was talking much too quickly for Peter’s liking, and it took him a solid 10 seconds to understand what she said.

“Mmm, ‘m I… not Peter?” His tongue suddenly felt like cotton, and he had a hard time getting words out. 

“Sweetie, do you remember your name?” The sound of a siren was suddenly audible.

Peter decided to ignore the question. “Hey, turn… turn it down. ‘S too loud. Don’...don’ like it.”

The woman above him wasn’t able to answer as an ambulance pulled up beside the pair, and three men with masks jumped out with a gurney.

“How long has he been awake?” A short man, stubby man asked.

“Only about a minute. I’m not sure if his name is Peter, he was confused when I called him that.”

One of the other doctors shot his head up from where he was knelt on the ground by the gurney. The woman felt like she recognized him from somewhere, but the mask wasn’t helping her figure it out.

The doctor that had spoken before looked much more calm than the other. “Okay, we should be able to take it from here, thank you, ma’am.”

“Of course,” She said as a tall, muscular blonde picked up the boy who was once again unconscious and moved him to the cot.

The three quickly lifted the gurney into the ambulance and jumped in before slamming the door shut and speeding away.

000

Right as the door shut, Tony, Steve and Bruce pulled off their masks. Tony’s eyes were wide in panic and sweat was starting to collect on his forehead. 

“She- what does she mean she was confused when she called him Peter? Bruce, what- you don’t- is he-” He stopped speaking to catch his breath while Bruce pushed an IV into Peter’s arm.

“I don’t know,” He said without looking up. “He might have just been delirious in the moment. When we get back to the tower I can run some tests, but I’m sure if he has some case of amnesia-”

“Amnesia,” Tony whispered as he practically fell onto one of the benches.

“Tony, like I was going to say, if there is anything, I’m sure it’s a very mild case. He looks starved and I’m sure his metabolism is messing with him due to the lack of food. His healing factor should fix his head right up, and I’m guessing he will be fine.”

“You’re guessing, but you don’t know! Shit, I can’t- if he-” And then Tony slumped forward in his chair, luckily Steve was close enough to stick a hand out before he face planted once again. 

Steve looked up to Bruce in panic, not knowing what just happened. 

“He hasn’t slept since he woke up, and he was just having a panic attack. He’s fine,” Bruce reassured. “If we could just speed things up Nat, that would be great!” He called to the front seat.

000

The ambulance pulled up behind the tower where it would receive less attention, and Clint quickly opened the doors from inside.

He had agreed to stay behind just to make sure they could have the quickest trip to the medbay possible, so Bruce called him from the ambulance to inform him what was happening.

Nat jumped out of the driver's seat while Bruce and Steve pulled Peter out of the back. Clint jumped in to help get Peter down safely so Steve could help Tony.

The three with Peter rushed into the tower while Steve contemplated his decisions. You could carry him. Which could end up with him waking up and not speaking to you ‘till the end of time. Or, wake him up and deal with Tony Stark.

As hard as option two could be, Steve knew he had to do it because it was the right thing. So, he stepped into the ambulance and moved to wake the genius when his hand caught on a metal tray next to him and it clattered to the floor.

Tony jumped awake at the noise, disturbed him from his peaceful silence. He glanced around himself and saw Steve standing next to him. 

“Jesus Rodgers did you kidnap me or something?” He quipped. 

And then the previous events of what happened must have caught up to him because he bolted out of his chair and into a standing position with wide, terrified eyes. “No, where’s Peter. Dammit, Steve, why the fuck are we in here?”

He shouldered Steve out of the way as he made to leave the ambulance when the super soldier caught his arm. “Tony, we got back literally a minute ago. I’m sure Peter has just arrived at the medbay, you’ve missed nothing.”

“Well to shit with that! My kid is passed out in an ambulance and I’m taking my beauty rest? I should be in the medbay with Peter!” Tony all but shouted at Steve.

“Tony, we can go up to the medbay right now, just calm down,” Steve calmly said, only further infuriating the billionaire.

But instead of snapping back at Steve, Tony took a long, aggravated breath and nodded his head while moving out of Steve’s grip. “Fine, let’s go.”

And that’s when Steve realized just how much Tony cared for Peter. The Tony he knew years ago was ‘Tony Stark. Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist’, but now, he was just ‘Tony’. The man wasn’t holding up his mask anymore, he didn’t care to make a witty comment for his ego, he just cared to make sure that his boy was okay.

Steve smiled at the thought, and ran after Tony into the tower.

000

Steve and Tony arrived in the medbay a minute later, basically sprinting into the lobby where Nat and Clint were sitting. “Where is he?” The two asked in unison

“Bruce just rushed him into the test rooms. We don’t know anything.” Natasha informed them.

“Oh, god.” Tony said as he fell backwards into one of the chairs next to Clint.

“Hey, like Bruce said, the worst thing is the bump on his head. Everything should be able to heal just fine as long as he gets some food in him. There’s really no need to worry,” Nat smiled warmly.

Tony relaxed a little at her words, but it wouldn’t be enough until Peter could prove that himself.

Steve sat down in the chair across from Clint and they all sat in silence for the next five minutes, not knowing what to say. 

Tony was starting to get anxious when the elevator dinged open and he looked up to see Pepper rushing in with a mix of concern and confusion on her face. Tony immediately stood to meet his girl in a comforting hug. 

“Tony, my gosh, what happened? FRIDAY said Peter was in here?” She said the second their bodies met.

All too soon, Pepper pulled away to look Tony in the eye. “Yeah, I, uhm,” he was at a loss for words now that one of the few people he found comfort in was here.

Pepper, thank her, must have seen the dam starting to break as she quickly helped him sit back down and sat next to him, holding his hand.

She sent Natasha a questioning look and of course the super spy knew just what she meant. 

“There was a call to 911 with Peter’s name so it transferred to us, his metabolism was beating him down with no food for so long and he passed out and hit his head. Bruce said there wasn’t anything major.” Nat supplied.

“But…?” Of course Pepper knew there was a but.

“But, when we went to go pick Peter up…” Natasha sighed. “He didn’t remember anything.”

Pepper’s eyes widened in shock. “Like, anything at all?”

Natasha shook her head. “Apparently it’s temporary, but still, we won’t know for sure until Bruce has the results.”

Tony audibly gulped and Pepper squeezed his hand in reassurance. There wasn’t anything anyone could say to make Tony feel better, so they all waited in tension filled silence.

000

After twenty minutes and twenty minutes too long, Bruce walked into the lobby with a look of joy on his face. Tony jumped up out of his seat and Bruce held up a hand so he could talk.

“Peter is going to be just fine.”

The entire room sagged with relief.

“As I assumed, he has a minor concussion that his healing is already working on and should be gone by morning. He had a bit of a case of starvation, but I have an IV giving him nutrients and he is healing up. The worst thing is the bump on his head, but I’m sure that will be gone in 36 hours tops. As for his amnesia, it’s nothing to be worried about. To be honest, I wouldn’t be surprised if he remembers everything the moment he wakes up.”

“How long before he wakes up?” Tony asked.

“I didn’t give him anything to keep him asleep, so it’s however much time his body needs to heal,” Bruce said.

“Can I see him?” 

Bruce smiled and cocked his head towards the hallway he came from. Everyone stood up to follow Bruce into the room.

They arrived at a wooden door near the end of the hallway, and Bruce stopped before going in. “I’m going to go and get some rest. I’ll be back in a couple of hours to check on Peter and make sure that he is getting enough nutrients. I suggest you should all get some rest,” Bruce gave Tony a narrowed look.

“Yeah, yeah, just let me in.”

Bruce sighed and opened the door and Tony wasted no time in walking straight to Peter’s side. The others filed in after him so they could all check on their favorite spider-boy.

Tony took the seat next to Peter and held his hand, not really caring about the sets of eyes watching him. “Hey, Pete,” he said gently. “I’m here.” He rubbed his thumb across the back of Peter’s hand, hoping for it to be a comforting action.

Natasha stepped forward and brushed back Peter’s hair that was starting to fall above his eyes. She sighed with a small smile on her face while rubbing her thumb across his forehead. 

“I’m gonna go get some sleep,” She said quietly. “Update me if anything happens.”

Tony nodded and gave her a look of gratitude before she walked out the door.

“I think I’m gonna hit the hay, too,” Steve said. “These past couple days have been exhausting.”

Clint nodded his agreement and gave Tony a pat on the shoulder before turning and following Steve out the door. 

That left just Pepper and Tony in the room. Pepper walked behind Tony and wrapped her arms around him from behind. She bent her head down and gently pressed a kiss into his hair. 

“He’s going to be okay Tony. You should get some sleep.” She whispered.

Tony waited a few minutes in silence before he leaned back so his head was resting against Pepper’s chest. “I don’t want to leave him.”

Pepper sighed and rubbed her hand up and down Tony’s arm before planting another kiss to his head. She looked around the room and her eyes landed on a small leather couch with a blanket draped across the back of it. 

She stood and walked around so she could look Tony in the eyes. “Why don’t you go lay down on the couch over there, just for a bit? I can stay with him.”

Tony looked hesitant but his eyelids were drooping and he knew he was going to pass out whether he was laying down or not.

He nodded his head and slowly stood up, wincing at the pops his back made in the process. 

He walked over to the couch and grabbed the blanket, wrapping it around his shoulders before laying down on his side.

He was turned so he had a view of the entire room, and could see Peter’s perfectly peaceful face whenever he opened his eyes.

He finally let himself drift off, knowing Peter was safe and sound.

And Tony slept.

000

Peter woke up with the feeling that his bladder was going to explode.

He heard someone shuffling next to him and convinced his eyes open to see a somewhat familiar lady sitting next to him, but he just couldn’t place who she was.

Her eyes softened when they made eye contact, and she reached forward to brush the hair out of Peter’s eyes.

“Hey sweetie, how’re you feeling?” She asked.

Peter furrowed his brow, now even more frustrated because he recognized her voice, but he couldn’t match it to her name.

“Who- Who’re you?” His voice scratched uncomfortably in his throat from the dryness of having no fluids in a while.

The woman’s face dropped a little, and Peter immediately picked up the fact that he made her upset.

“ ‘M sorry. Don’t be sad,” he said.

The lady was once again smiling at him, and her eyes seemed to sparkle a little with it.

“I’m not sad, honey,” she assured, but Peter didn’t totally believe it. “Can you look over there, sweetie? Do you see Tony over on that couch?”

Peter slowly turned his head in the direction the nice lady was looking, and his eyes landed on a man sleeping on a couch.

A man whose name was Tony. He knew Tony. He liked Tony. Tony is his… mentor. Yes, and Peter is Tony’s mentee. And Tony had a fiance named Pepper. Pepper Potts. Pepper is sitting by him, Pepper is holding his hand. Pepper is the nice lady.

He just watched Tony’s chest rise and fall for a few minutes, letting everything sink in.

He was Peter Parker. Peter Parker had an aunt named May. May died a few weeks ago. Now Peter lives with Tony.

Peter moved his eyes to Tony’s face, and took in the man's features. He had dark eye bags under his eyes, hair flopping off to the side, and his normally perfect and pristine beard untrimmed and unkempt.

Peter Parker had a best friend named Ned Leeds. And another best friend named Michelle Jones. He went to Midtown School of Science and Technology. He currently lives at Stark Tower with the Avengers.

And then everything else came rushing back to him full force. Peter hurt Tony. Peter left so he couldn’t hurt anyone else and should most definitely not be in the same room as Tony.

He looked back to Pepper with wide eyes.

“Pepper,” he whispers.

She noticed the look of horror on his face and moved to sit next to him on the bed. “Yeah, sweetie, what’s going on?”

“Can’t- I can’t- Tony can’t be here. I hurt him,” He stuttered.

He glanced back over to Tony who still wasn’t aware of the scene in front of him.

“Peter, can you look at me?” The boy obeyed and turned back to look. “You did not hurt Tony. There is nothing you could’ve done to prevent what happened, and there was nothing you could have done to make it happen. I know you have lost a lot of people in your life, but none of that was your fault. You weren’t the one to crash your parents plane, you weren’t the one to pull that trigger on your uncle, and there was nothing you did to make what happened to May happen.

“Life is going to go on, and odds are this wasn’t the last time Tony will get hurt. But you have to remember that it wasn’t you. None of it was. And the best thing you can do is stick around and be there for Tony those times he gets hurt. Because at some point, life is going to happen where you can’t be with each other anymore. You have to soak up all the time with each other you can get before that time comes.”

By the time Pepper finished talking, tears were in Peter’s eyes. Even though he knew there was no way to stop him from blaming himself for what happened, the knot that formed in his chest several days ago loosened. Because maybe in some upside down world, Pepper was right.

Peter really hoped that was true.

Their moment was ruined when the door opened and a tired looking Bruce walked in. His eyes lit up when he noticed Peter was awake, and he smiled warmly at his patient.

“Hi Bruce,” Peter greeted.

“Hi Peter, it’s good to see you’re awake. How are you feeling?” He asked while Pepper moved back to her chair.

“I feel good.”

“That’s good, is anything hurting?” The doctor asked.

Peter shook his head. “No, but I really need to pee.”

Bruce and Pepper both laughed at his response, and Bruce walked around the bed to the side Peter’s IV was on. 

“I’m not quite ready to stop the IV, but this bag is almost empty. I can take this one out so you can go to the bathroom and then we can give your elbow a break, I’ll put the next one by your wrist. Does that sound okay?”

Peter nodded his head, not really caring about what he had to do, he just needed to empty his bladder.

“Okay, will you be able to get there on your own?” Bruce asked.

“I think so,” Peter said while Bruce pulled the IV out of his arm.

The doctor brought the pole over to the cabinets at the side of the room to get some fresh fluids for Peter.

Peter pulled the covers off of his lap and slowly sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. His bare feet hit the floor and he didn’t give his head much time to catch up with him as he started to stand up, making his vision go black from the sudden change in elevation. He stumbled forward and was quickly caught by strong arms, helping the boy stand up straight.

“I got ya, bud.”

Tony took Peter’s arm and wrapped it around his shoulder as Peter’s vision slowly creeped back to him.

The blanket Tony previously had wrapped around himself was currently laying in a heap on the floor, evidence of his sudden scramble to get to Peter.

Tony quickly but carefully helped Peter into the small bathroom connected to the hospital room and helped him sit down on the toilet, not wanting to risk him toppling over while peeing.

Tony shut the door and averted his gaze as nature took its course, and the sound of the toilet flushing let Tony know Peter was done. He helped Peter up to the sink so the boy could wash his hands and Tony kept a firm grip on him as he did so.

As Peter finished up drying his hands, him and Tony made eye contact in the mirror. They looked at each other for a moment before Peter turned to face Tony.

“I’m sor-” Tony didn’t even let Peter finish his apology.

“Bud, it’s okay. I really wish you hadn’t done what you did and that you would’ve just talked to me about it, but as long as you are here and you’re safe, I forgive you,” Tony kept his hand on Peter’s shoulder as he reached up and pushed the boy's hair out of his face. “Can I just-”

Tony didn’t even wait for permission as he closed the distance between him and Peter and pulled him into the strongest hug they ever had. He rested his face on the boy’s curls and inhaled deeply, never wanting to forget his scent.

Peter quickly wrapped his arms around Tony’s middle and buried his face in the older man's neck. “I promise I won’t go again… I just can’t lose you.”

Tony turned his head so his cheek was resting on Peter’s head. “I know bud, but I can’t lose you either. Why don’t we just stick to the now and not worry about the future. Does that sound good?”

Peter smiled and nodded his head. “Yeah, that sounds good.”

That knot that had made its way into Peter’s chest two days ago, well, it was gone now.

000

5 minutes later, Tony was sitting on Peter’s bed with his back against the headboard and Peter’s head in his lap.

Tony sent Pepper off to bed saying her shift was over, and luckily she had obliged without complaint. Bruce had put a new IV in Peter’s arm and quickly left to get some more rest.

When the two others had left, Tony and Peter let the silence wrap them up. They just held each other close, not worrying about anything beyond that small wooden door.

Tony kept his hand buried in Peter’s hair, gently running his hand through the curls as Peter once again drifted off to sleep to let his body heal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N- And there you have it! The story’s almost over! And I’m going to say it again because I feel like I can’t say it enough, I know how quickly I solved the issue. Normally my messed up brain will let the Ironfam suffer for a lot longer, but in this story I just want to get Peter’s new life started without much dilemmas.


	7. Acceptance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony took that time to look at the boy, truly look, and that’s when he noticed how much more at peace Peter truly seemed. The boy’s posture was no longer tense and held back, the crinkles no longer resting around his eyes, and no small movements that showed he was trying to contain something.
> 
> He was just Peter. Peter Parker.
> 
> No grief, sadness, or guilt resting on the boy's chest. He looked… peaceful.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N- And here we go! The final chapter has arrived. This chapter isn’t going to take place on a certain date, but future ones should be based off of the day I posted it on unless said otherwise. That way I can follow holidays and birthdays according to schedule.
> 
> This chapter is a shorter one because I had to finish it before Halloween was over so I could post my Halloween oneshot. (Go check it out!) I’ve recently found an interest in reading Penny Parker fanfic- or female Peter Parker- and have fallen in love with it! Let me know if you guys would like to see a series just for Penny and Tony!
> 
> Don’t forget that I will continue to post Ironfam fics after this. I do have an A03 account and a fanfiction account under the same username. Both will have the same content and should not be uploaded anywhere else.
> 
> Please don’t forget, any and all Irondad and Spiderson prompts are welcome! I already have a few in the works but feel free to reach out for anything! Enjoy the last chapter!

Three Days Later

Tony lightly tapped on Peter’s bedroom door with his knuckles before pushing it open and walking in. Ever since the boy had got out of the medbay two days ago, Tony had been a bit overprotective. Some nights when he couldn’t sleep he would check on the boy to calm his anxiety.

It wasn’t anything extravagant, he would just peek his head in to make sure he was sleeping soundly and then he would fall asleep back in his own bed soon after.

It was currently 6:30 AM, and Tony had a nagging want to touch Peter. Pepper had left the night before for more SI meetings and this made Tony want physical contact all the more. He had just woken up from a restless sleep and was planning to check on Peter to make sure he was okay before making breakfast.

He quietly made his way to Peter’s bed where the boy’s back was facing him as he was curled up in the middle. He sat by the head of the bed and peeked over Peter’s shoulder so Tony could see his face.

Peter had a small pillow tucked under his arm and pulled up to his chest. His mouth was slightly parted and there was a small patch of drool dripping onto his bedspread. Tony couldn’t help but smile and reach his hand out to gently smooth his kid’s curls back from his forehead.

Peter shifted at the touch and turned onto his back so he was partially facing Tony. His face furrowed in confusion as he was disturbed from his sleep.

His eyes shifted open just a fraction and he looked up through blurry eyes to see Tony watching him admirably. 

“D…?” Peter barely said as he was still half asleep.

Tony’s heart squeezed a little and he smiled softly at the boy. “Shhh, go to sleep bud.”

Peter turned around so he was facing the billionaire and grabbed a hold of the man’s legs while he rested his head on Tony’s lap. He hummed with content as he slowly started to drift back to sleep.

Tony waited a few minutes to make sure Peter was fully asleep before lifting the boys head up and gently moving it back onto the pillows. The genius stood and pulled the blankets up to Peter’s chin before leaning down and setting a gentle kiss on his forehead.

With one last look he turned away and gently shut the door behind him so he could go make breakfast.

000

Peter woke up to the smell of something absolutely delicious drifting through the air. His stomach started to growl from just the smell, so he slowly stood out of his bed with a blanket still wrapped around his shoulders and made his way to the kitchen.

As he blinked away the last bit of sleep he saw Tony standing over the griddle with a tall stack of pancakes piled next to him. Clint was sitting on the counter and slowly popping pieces of a pancake into his mouth while Tony and him chatted. Steve and Nat were seated at the table while looking over some papers and waiting for the food to be finished.

Peter quietly padded towards Tony as the man looked up. Tony smiled gently at the kid’s disheveled appearance. 

“Morning, Bud.” He said.

Peter hummed in response and rested his head on Tony’s shoulder as the man flipped the last of the pancakes onto the stack. 

“Did you sleep well?” Tony asked as he fully turned towards Peter.

The boy nodded and buried his face into Tony’s chest. Tony lightly chuckled and ruffled Peter’s hair before turning and grabbing the food. 

“Don’t fall asleep on me. I made your favorite.”

Peter looked up with a raised eyebrow when he realised that the pancakes had small dots of blue covering them.

The vigilante smiled and turned toward his father figure with a smile gracing his face. “Blueberry pancakes,” He said happily. “You remembered.”

“‘Course I did. I’ve gotta make them right for my favorite kid. Wanna grab that fruit and we can go sit down?” The genius nodded his head to a bowl of chopped fruit on the counter and Peter quickly grabbed it and sat down at the table.

Over the time the two had been chatting, Nat and Steve had cleaned up their papers and Clint had taken one of the seats at the table. The food was set out on the table and everyone started to dig in.

Everyone had been chatting and having a peaceful morning while they ate their breakfast. As Peter grabbed his fourth pancake, there was a break in conversation before Steve spoke up.

“So… I’ve been waiting to talk about this for a bit until everything fell back to its normal pace, but when we were in the lab a few days ago looking for Peter, and Tony made that call to your friend,” he nodded in Peter’s direction. “He said something about patrols? What does that mean?”

Peter’s eyes went wide and he whipped his head towards Tony, who looked equally as nervous. Clint’s eyebrows were furrowed in confusion, Steve was still waiting for his answer, and Nat just had a smirk with a knowing look on her face.

Tony and Peter had a silent conversion with their facial expressions.

‘What do we do?!’ Peter asked with abnormally wide eyes.

Tony seemed to contemplate their decisions before softening his face and giving a tiny lift of his shoulders, almost saying, ‘Do you want them to know?’

Peter just watched Tony for a few more seconds, but it was obvious that Tony wanted him to make the decision. The spider slowly nodded his head and the two turned back to face the others at the table.

“So,” Tony started. “We haven’t been telling you guys the entire truth about Peter.”

Clint and Steve just looked more confused but stayed silent so Tony could continue.

“Okay… before you guys freak out, let me explain. Do you guys remember when we were in Germany… and we fought with who you know as Spider-Man?” Tony asked.

Clint and Steve’s jaws both dropped and Natasha snorted. “No,” Clint said disbelievingly.

Peter gave a slight wave of his hand and said, “Hey, everyone,” mocking what he did at the airport.

“That was you?” Steve exclaimed. “Tony, how could-”

“Like I said,” Tony cut in. “Let me explain. I had nothing to do with Peter becoming spidey. When everything with the accords started happening, I recruited him to help. Which is still one of my biggest regrets to this day.”

“W-” Peter started with a hurt voice, but Tony cut him off with a look.

“I put you in danger and that was wrong, but that’s not what we’re focusing on. All I did was give Peter his new suit to change him out of his pajamas and keep him safe. We have no intentions of letting anyone outside of this room know and we plan on keeping it that way.” Tony ended in a stern voice.

Steve and Clint sat stunned at the news, and eventually Natasha started snickering. 

“You guys are so oblivious,” She laughed.

“YOU KNEW?” Clint all but shouted.

Peter flinched in his seat at the level of his voice. Tony seemed to notice and he placed his hand on Peter’s knee for comfort.

“Keep it down, would you? We have a couple of enhanced beings in the room,” Tony said.

Natasha spoke in a much more calm voice, “Of course I knew. What do you take me for?”

Clint rolled his eyes while looking over to Tony and his kid. “So, how did that happen? You implant spider genes in the kid for a new recruit?”

Tony seemed to genuinely look offended, and Peter snickered at the look on his face.

“Actually, I became Spider-Man before we even met. I was on a field trip for school…” 

The rest of the team's breakfast was about how Peter came to be Spider-Man and the many questions that everyone had for the boy.

Long after everyone's plates were cleared and all questions were answered, the group parted ways to fulfill their daily tasks, leaving Tony and Peter alone in the penthouse.

“So, whaddya wanna do today, bud? Nothing on the agenda for me.”

Peter finished putting the leftover food in the fridge before turning to give Tony his full attention. “Actually, I kinda wanted to talk to you about that.” Tony looked at the boy with a quirked eyebrow and stayed quiet so he would continue. “Well, um, I think since things are… kinda getting to some sort of normal, and there isn’t really anything going on… would it be okay if I could go back to school?”

The pitch of Peter’s voice had risen an octave by the time he quit speaking, and he quickly started babbling when there wasn’t an immediate answer from Tony. “And it’s fine if you don’t want me to, Queens is a long drive from here, I just kinda wanted to get something back to normal for me…”

The vigilante trailed off as Tony stepped forward and wrapped Peter in his arms. “That’s okay bud. If you want to go back that's perfectly fine. I just didn’t know if it was too soon for you, but if you're sure you’re ready just let me know and we'll get you back in no time.”

Peter sighed in relief and wrapped his arms around Tony. “Okay, yeah that’s cool. I’m ready to go back, but like since it’s Friday do you think I could start on Monday again?”

Tony put his arms on Peter’s shoulders and spread him and the boy apart so they could make eye contact. “It’s a done deal,” the man said with a smile.

000

Later that night Tony was lounging on the couch with his Stark-Pad displayed on his lap. Rain calmly tapped the windows outside and the only other source of light was the glow of the city. Peter had gone to bed about thirty minutes prior, wanting to start a decent sleep schedule before he went back to school.

Tony had told him he would be heading to bed soon also, and was planning on doing so. He was about to start packing up for the night when he heard Peter’s door slowly creek open. Footsteps slowly padded behind where Tony lay on the couch. The genius assumed that Peter wasn’t aware of Tony’s presence.

Before the man was able to comprehend what was happening, the elevator dinged and Peter was gone as soon as he got there.

“FRI, where’s Peter going?” Tony asked, already making his way to the elevator.

“The elevator's destination is the roof.”

Tony nearly choked on his spit. “Why? It’s raining! Is he sleepwalking or something?”

The elevator doors opened in front of Tony and he quickly stepped in.

“No Boss, Peter is fully conscious and aware.”

FRIDAY knew that Tony was getting antsy and sped up the average pace for the elevator, making him arrive in just a few seconds. When the doors opened, Tony had not been expecting to see Peter curled onto one of the lounging chairs in just sweatpants and a t-shirt, already drenched in the rain.

The boy's back was to Tony so he couldn’t yet see his father figure. Said father figure hesitantly walked forward until he could reach out and touch Peter, but he didn’t.

Instead he quietly stood behind Peter for a couple of minutes, looking out into the streets of New York. The man hadn’t realised how cold he was getting until he looked down and saw Peter shivering.

He leaned forward and put his hand on the boy's shoulder, making Peter flinch and whip his head towards Tony. When the boy realised it was only Tony, he turned back around to face the streets again. No one said anything for a few more minutes, but eventually Peter’s trembles were growing too forceful under Tony’s arm and the man broke the silence.

“What’s going on, bud?” He asked quietly.

Peter looked back towards the genius and smiled lightly. “Nothin’,” he said honestly. “I’ve just always loved the rain. Calms me down.”

Tony took that time to look at the boy, truly look, and that’s when he noticed how much more at peace Peter truly seemed. The boy’s posture was no longer tense and held back, the crinkles no longer resting around his eyes, and no small movements that showed he was trying to contain something.

He was just Peter. Peter Parker.

No grief, sadness, or guilt resting on the boy's chest. He looked… peaceful.

Tony let those thoughts sink in, slowly feeling something warm spread through his chest. 

Although he realised how good the boy looked, he still was worried about the shaking. As to not ruin the moment Tony slowly stepped forward and looked down at Peter. The boy seemed to understand, as he scooted towards one side of the chair without a word.

Tony sat down and put an arm around Peter’s shoulders, pulling him into his side. Peter smiled and leaned his head on Tony’s shoulder.

The pair sat there, sharing body heat and staring at the blurred lights of the city below for some time. It may have been an hour, it may have been ten minutes, but neither said anything, just basked in each other's presence and the beauty of the city surrounding them.

000

The next morning, Tony woke up to see one Peter Parker curled around him, head resting on his chest. He smiled, remembering the events of last night and slowly brought a hand up to brush through Peter’s curls. The boy's lips twitched in his sleep but he didn’t stir.

Tony realized it was a Sunday, meaning everyone was sleeping in and they had the day to themselves. He blindly reached for the remote on his nightstand and flicked on the TV, making sure to turn the volume down so that the show wouldn’t wake Peter.

He decided on watching Friends, something that Peter used to make references to here and there. He had personally seen only a few episodes, but he never minded the show much.

Tony had to turn the volume down so low to the point where he was lip reading everything, but if it was any louder Peter would think the man was trying to wake him. Said man was perfectly content with his kid curled up on his chest and a show that he couldn’t even understand playing in front of him.

About two episodes in, Peter started to stir, first turning in Tony's hold and then sighing happily. Tony continued carding his fingers through Peter’s hair until the boy opened his eyes, facing the TV screen. When the vigilante realized what was playing, he turned and smiled childishly at Tony before looking back to the screen.

Tony decided it was okay for him to turn up the volume on the show now that Peter had greeted him in consciousness, and the two spent their morning in peace. They binged for about an hour until Peter’s stomach started growling.

Tony looked down at the boy's flushed cheeks when it happened and couldn’t help but chuckle. Peter hid his face in Tony’s chest and groaned when his stomach rumbled again.

“Okay bud, if you insist, we can go eat,” Tony teased.

Peter’s ears turned a darker shade of crimson as Tony pushed the boy off of him and climbed out of bed.

“C’mon Petey, let's go,” The billionaire urged. 

Peter turned to face his father figure and made the most adorable intimidating face ever. “Make me,” he growled.

Tony gave him a pointed look before crawling back onto the bed and making a burrito out of Peter and a blanket. Peter seemed confused by what the man was doing until he grabbed a hold of his feet and started to pull Peter off the bed.

“Woah, woah, woah,” Peter said frantically. “You were not meant to take that seriously!”

The boy squealed when he slid off of the bed and onto the floor. 

“Oh, c’mon Pete, I thought you knew me better than that.” Tony readjusted his grip on the blankets before continuing to pull Peter out of the bedroom. “I take everything seriously.”

Peter was scratching for a hold at anything around him while he said, “No… you do not. You most definitely do not.”

“Is that supposed to be offensive?” The genius asked.

“You can take it however you want,” Peter snarked.

Tony scoffed and rolled his eyes as Peter gave up trying to stop the man. The boy sighed in defeat and let Tony pull him the rest of the way into the kitchen.

When they finally stopped moving, Peter didn’t attempt to get up from the floor, instead deciding to curl up in it further and watch as Tony pulled out ingredients for breakfast above. The man pulled out a package of cheese and was reading the back of it as he pulled out more ingredients from the fridge.

As Tony started walking towards the stove, he seemed too focused on balancing the eggs in his hands that he forgot about Peter laying in the middle of the floor. He stumbled over the boy and was able to catch his balance on the counter top, but not before an egg was headed straight to Peter’s forehead. Lucky for the vigilantes spider-sense, he was able to catch the egg before his face became a skillet.

Unlucky for the vigilante, he had super strength and eggs were very delicate. The egg cracked in his grip and the insides came pouring out into his hands.

“Aaahhhh!” Peter exclaimed as he sat up so the egg wouldn’t drip onto his face.

Tony snorted laughter from the back of his throat and moved forward to help his kid. He grabbed a paper towel for Peter to drop the egg into and quickly threw it into the garbage. Then unwrapping the blanket from around the boy’s shoulders so he could stand easily and wash his hands, Tony couldn’t help the laughter that escaped him.

“It’s not funny Tony!” The boy complained. “Did you really forget about me that quickly?” Peter faked a pout and pulled out his puppy dog eyes as he hoped for a reaction from Tony.

Tony just laughed and ruffled the boy’s hair. “No, bud, I didn’t forget about you. I’m just not used to spider-kid’s laying on my kitchen floor.”

“It wouldn’t have happened if you didn’t literally drag me out of here in the first place!” Peter whined as he finished rinsing his hands.

“Hey, you were the one that told me to make you get out of bed! I’m never one to turn down a challenge.”

The two continued bickering as they cleaned everything up and started cooking up breakfast.

000

Peter had been wanting to ask for a while now. He really had. But every time he thought he had built up the courage and looked into Tony’s eyes, his resolve crumbled.

It’s not like the man would say no. Actually, Peter was almost 100% sure he would say yes. Peter was able to pick up pretty quickly that Tony liked doing things for him. The boy just wasn’t sure how comfortable Tony would be with the request.

But lately, Peter’s chest had started to burn and he couldn’t help but decided that today would be the day. It didn’t matter what events were going on, Peter was going to ask.

And right now seemed like a decent time.

Peter and Tony were back in the lab, having headed straight down there after finishing breakfast. They sat shoulder to shoulder, with Peter rewiring part of one of the Iron Man suits gauntlets Tony had given him permission to. 

Said man kept a respectful eye on Peter while working on some upgrades for one of the helmets himself. Peter’s brain had mindlessly wandered while he thought about his options for what to say. It wasn’t a big deal, and honestly, Peter started to wonder what he was so worked up with in the first place. The calming aura of the lab may have been a contributor to the peace, as well as the man next to him.

Oh well, shoot your shot, Peter thought.

“Hey Mr. Stark?” He asked, surprised by the evenness of his voice. 

Tony looked up from his work, knowing something important was happening to the kid if he was back to ‘Mr. Stark’.

“Yeah, kid?” He questioned. “Everything okay?”

Peter nodded mindlessly without taking his eyes off of his work. “Yeah, everythings good.” Peter thought about changing the subject, or possibly just acting like he forgot, but he knew he would regret it in the future. He quickly pushed the words out of his mouth before he could regret anything else. “I was just wondering if maybe I could visit May’s grave sometime? Or we, of course. Just don’t want to make you feel like you need to come.”

Peter waited quietly, heart pounding in his chest as he waited for a response. After a few moments and none came, the boy slowly looked up to see Tony looking at him with an unreadable expression.

Peter’s confusion must have snapped Tony out of his trance as he suddenly smiled at the boy and stood up. “Of course, Bud. Do you want to pick up some flowers on the way, too?”

Peter’s eyes widened as he looked at his father figure with a mix of confusion and shock. “Wait, we’re going right now?”

“Of course. Unless you don’t want to. We can wait. Just say the word and-”

“No, no, I want to go... I just wasn’t expecting it to be so sudden.”

“Well, you know me, kid. I don’t think before I make decisions, more of a ready, fire, aim type of guy.” He said with a smile.

Peter stood from his chair and followed Tony to the elevator as they discussed what flowers they would bring to May for their visit.

000

They ended up choosing some simple white roses, nothing too extravagant but nothing too ordinary. May would like them. 

Peter carefully traced his finger along the tallest standing pedal as their car parked outside of the graveyard. Peter didn’t look up for a few moments, instead deciding to keep his attention focused on the flowers.

“Do you want me to come with you bud?” Tony asked quietly.

Peter looked up to see the man watching him with a soft expression. “No… I think I’ll be okay.” The boy responded.

Tony smiled and squeezed Peter’s shoulder. “Sounds good, kiddo. You take as long as you need, okay?”

Peter nodded and pushed the car door open, stepping out into the cool autumn breeze. The wind slowly ruffled his hair as he walked through the gates of the graveyard, and followed the familiar yet unfamiliar path. He took his time at a slow pace, and it was about two minutes before he arrived at his destination. The boy took a deep breath before kneeling down and placing the roses on the stone. For a few minutes he didn’t say anything, deciding on rather tracing his fingers along the engraved words.

When he reached the end of the words, Peter let his hand fall flat to the ground as he began to speak. “Hey, May,” he greeted. “It’s Peter. I just wanted to check in, talk to you…

“Things have gotten better since the last time I saw you. By a lot. Tony has been taking really good care of me. I’ve never really seen this side of him before… but I hope you know that he’s doing really good. The best he can. If you could see him, I bet you would agree.

“He introduced me to the team a couple weeks ago. They’re all really nice people. Ms. Black Widow, she lets me call her Nat, she reminds me of you. They’re all really great to me. Steve cooks a lot of really good food for us. He makes me treats when I need a cheer up. Clint plays video games with me and really acts like he’s known me for a long time… it’s nice. I feel safe with them. They… they really have helped me ever since you left. And I miss you so much, May. So much. It can get really bad some days, just out of the blue, but they always know what to do. Tony always does. I guess I just wanted to say that I’m in good hands. You don’t need to worry about me. You can go relax with Uncle Ben, and mom and dad. I’m gonna be okay, don’t worry.

“At first I didn’t think I could do it again, lose another parent,” A tear rolled down Peter’s cheek. “But I’m going to, May. I know I can. Because to be honest, I would have died for you. I would have done anything in my power to make sure you were okay and got home safely. But I couldn’t have done anything to save you or to stop it from happening, I know that. So instead of dying for you… I think I’m gonna live for you, May.

“I love you.”

Peter traced his hand across the words on the stone one last time before standing up and walking away.

I’m gonna be okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N- It’s over. That’s it. It’s done. The complete story of ‘I’m Here, Always’. I really hoped you guys enjoyed the story, I know I shed a tear or two writing it. I just wanted to say thankyou for all of the positive feedback. You guys have been amazing.
> 
> I feel like I’m saying some sort of goodbye, but I’m not going anywhere! The series will continue with plenty of our favorite father-son duo. My messages are always open for prompts or story ideas you guys would like to see.
> 
> I love you all, and I hope you’ll be reading more of my stories soon!

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think! Sorry if this is a short chapter, I wanted to do this in one sitting because I had so many thoughts running through my head. Long story short, I rushed it. Not sure how long it will take for the next chapter to come out, but I'm hoping it will be sometime in the next week!


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